Bio

Joshua Haugen (b. 1998) is currently a K-8 Music Teacher at WPCA in Lansing Michigan. Prior to his current position, he completed a Masters in Composition at Michigan State University, studying with Dr. David Biedenbender and Dr. Alexis Bacon. Originally from Kalamazoo, Michigan, he earned dual-BM degrees in both Saxophone Performance and Composition from Western Michigan University. He specializes primarily in the performance, production, and promotion of new music. His musical projects, most easily accessible on his YouTube channel, have been viewed 500,000 times and have amassed over a 1,350 regular subscribers.

 

As a composer, he has worked with ensembles such as So Percussion, Spectral Quartet, ~NOIS Saxophone Quartet, Splinter Reeds, the Hinge Ensemble, Kestrel Duo, the Azu Saxophone Quartet, and the The Western Illinois University Saxophone Quartet, among others. He has been a a finalist in the 2022 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Competition, the Red Jasper Composition Competition, and been selected for the Score Follower Spring 21 Call for scores; his work has also been featured in the 2021 Society of Composers National Conference and the 2022 Michigan State University Social Justice Art Festival. 

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An equally accomplished soloist and chamber musician, he has seen great experience as a saxophonist. He has been a finalist in the 2021 WMU Concerto Competition, while also premiering, performing, and commissioning dozens of new works by young, diverse, and up-and-coming composers. He has partook in a variety of ensembles, from the WMU Wind Symphony, WMU Symphony Orchestra, WMU Jazz Orchestra, WMU Jazz Lab Band, Birds on a Wire, and the MSU Symphony Band. He also regularly arranges, performs, and contributes new works for the saxophone, his recent performance projects taking contemporary works for bass clarinet (from composers such as Carter, Xenakis, Chin, and Hyla, among others) and reimagining them for the baritone saxophone.He is a student off Professor Joe Lulloff at MSU, studying prior with Prof. Henning Schroder and Dr. Andrew Rathbun at WMU. 

 

He spends his time outside of music with his wonderful fiancée and their two beautiful cats, Hank and Mister Mayor.