The Artistic Director of Key Chorale

Audiences have come to love the passionate conducting, engaging personality, and creative programming of Maestro Joseph Caulkins. Joseph is the Artistic Director for Sarasota’s Key Chorale and for nine seasons was the Associate Conductor/Director of Choruses for the Southwest Florida Symphony. With his choruses Mr. Caulkins has released 4 CDs, led three European concert tours, conducted numerous premieres, commissioned new works for his ensembles, and led SWFLS’s annual Messiah and Holiday Pops concerts. In the fall of 2010 Joseph founded Vocal Artistry, a 22-voice semi-professional chamber choir associated with First Baptist Church in Downtown Fort Myers. This past season Vocal Artistry raised over $10,000 for local charities through their concerts.

Joseph is known for creating concert “events” and has led Key Chorale on an interesting journey including: a dramatic performance of Richard Einhorn’s dynamic oratorio, Voices of Light, written to accompany Carl Dreyer’s 1928 silent film classic “The Passion of Joan of Arc”, a collaboration with the Sarasota Opera and the Sarasota Film Society; an innovative program titled Mozart Meets Radiohead with edgy string quintet Sybarite5 and Key Chorale; the US premiere of James Whitbourn’s Annelies, a setting of the Diary of Anne Frank, which the Herald-Tribune called a “Triumph”; and the highly acclaimed Cirque des Voix, an innovative concert experience with Circus Sarasota. The Herald-Tribune said of Cirque des Voix™:

“This was not simply a concert taking place in a tent with some circus acts in front of the orchestra and chorus. Rather, we saw the Maestro transformed to Ringmaster and programmed music which perfectly meshed with the nature of each circus act.”

Highlights of the 2012-13 season include: presenting a musical tribute to Conductor Emeritus Daniel Moe; conducting Durufle’s Requiem, performances of Annelies culminating in a 90-minute documentary created by WEDU; in partnership with The United Way, the release of Vocal Artistry’s debut CD More Than Music; and 4 performances of Cirque des Voix™ in Sarasota.

Joseph has also conducted several ballets, including Elite Syncopations by MacMillan and the 2006 performances of Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Sarasota Ballet, Key Chorale and the SWFLS. Comfortable with music from Classics to Pops, Mr. Caulkins has led concerts with various orchestras and has conducted for pop artists Daniel Narducci, Ralna English, and Kenny Rogers.

An experience Alpinist, Mountain Joe has climbed over 100 peaks throughout the US, Canada, France, and Switzerland including Mount Rainier, Grand Teton, and the 15,776 foot Mont Blanc. Joseph resides in Fort Myers with his wife Michelle. The intrepid pair recently acquired a small vacation home in France, near, yes, more mountains.

For more information, visit www.josephcaulkins.com.