Episode 18: Joshua Banbury

Joshua Banbury’s work and personal narrative are a tapestry of rich textures influenced by the wide range of music (Jazz, Folk Music, Classical, Carnatic Music and Art Songs) that he has been a student of and performed at the highest levels. He is also artistically and intellectually inspired by Surrealist artists like Leonora Carrington, his Texas roots, and the folk songs of Appalachia.   

Joshua is musically gifted. What he can do from a technical perspective and evoke from an emotional standpoint with his rich baritone voice is singular. The sound is haunting, unusual, unexpected. As he describes it himself, he has slowly chiseled all the musical influences he has studied into a perfectly unique sculpture that is his voice. Like an archeologist, he uses his voice to excavate and document his life story and to affirm that his history is beautiful just as it is. Now as a librettist with writing commissions for some of the most prestigious music and art institutions in America like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Philharmonic, he is crossing over into the realm of genius.

Joshua views his music as a way to construct what he calls “ecosystems in his mind” where he can invite others to dwell with him. Like all of us on a quest for something larger than ourselves, the road Joshua travels is long and winding where he faces the complexities of race, sexuality and the sheer energy it takes to be engaged in any creative process. When I posed the question to him what advice he would give to his younger self as Joshua began his musical journey in earnest, he stated something we can all learn from – “I’m different for a reason. I have been sent here to do different things. My path is different.”