Joshua Bendel | Music Composer

Joshua Bendel (b. 2008) is an emerging composer and violist based in Fairfax County, Virginia, whose music is becoming known for blending intense drive with atmospheric lyricism and programmatic storytelling.

Primarily self-taught, Bendel has more than five years of compositional experience, with works performed by ensembles at both the high-school and collegiate levels. His music has been featured at the 2025 VMEA Conference Composition Festival and in the 2026 premiere of The Hunt by James Madison University Spring's String Thing Philharmonic Orchestra. His piece Memoriae Pueriles: Reverie received its world premiere at Centreville High School, which Bendel himself conducted.

As an active violist, Bendel channels his knowledge from the stands into idiomatic, practical, and pedagogically-sound works that walk the line of practical playability and ambitious musical expression.

Bendel currently studies at Northern Virginia Community College and plans to pursue further study in music education and composition

Bendel's interest in composition budded from his experience as a violist. Not long after beginning orchestra, he became fascinated by the moving parts of a musical score - how the individual lines interact, overlap, and work together to constitute a complete work.

That curiosity eventually led him from studying scores to writing them himself, developing his craft through listening, experimentation, and lots of iteration.

His background in performance continues to shape the way he approaches composition. Working from the inside of the ensemble has given him an appreciation for the practical realities of instrumental writing, while his interest in the architecture of the score continues to drive his exploration of orchestral color, musical narrative, and ensemble writing.

Outside of music, Bendel enjoys colorguard as a hobby, practices and teaches taekwondo as a school-rank fourth-degree black belt, and trains in martial arts tricking. He particularly enjoys the opportunity to explore movement, physical expression, and performance that these disciplines provide.

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