Joshua Hyde is a saxophonist, improviser, and composer. 

One of the leading saxophonists of his generation, Joshua approaches  music-making fearlessly, interpreting music from the renaissance through to the most extreme and experimental new music of today.

Internationally recognised as a performer of new notated music, he is also at home as an improviser; creating and performing music with his electric trio Replicant (with Primoz Sukic, e-guitar and Benjamin Soistier, machines) and with his acoustic trio triovitrio (with Jaouen Rudolf, drums, and Massimo Pinca, bass); and as a duo with long-time collaborator Ben Carey (synthesizers).  

Together with Canadian percussionist Noam Bierstone, Joshua formed the hybrid meta-duo scapegoat. Collaborations with composers Mauricio Pauly, Michelle Lou, and Santiago Diez-Fischer have inspired new performance practices combining acoustic instruments and performer-controlled electronics .  The duo’s recording on Kairos of Pierluigi Billone’s ‘2 Alberi’ – written for scapegoat with the support of the Siemens Foundation – was awarded the Italian Music Critics’ Prize in 2020.

Joshua also maintains a longstanding partnership with French pianist Antoine Alerini since meeting as students at the Paris Conservatoire. The pair perform music ranging from severely contemporary to, more recently, transcriptions and original 20th century repertoire for saxophone and piano. 

A member of the legendary and uncompromising Australian ensemble Elision since 2016, Joshua has collaborated with, among others, Liza Lim, Richard Barrett, and Aaron Cassidy on recordings and performances across Australia, Europe, North America and Asia.

Joshua is a founding member, saxophonist, and was from 2011-2021 co-artistic director, of Parisian new music ensemble soundinitiative. The group has created a unique identity questioning the role of the interpreter in new music, incorporating movement into their performance practice, rethinking the use of space in presentation of music, and premiering creative work by members of the ensemble.

Since 2011, Joshua has been a regular guest artist of Cologne-based new music ensemble Musikfabrik, a leading force for new music in across Europe, and he appears on recordings of works by Enno Poppe, Evan Johnson, Liza Lim, Dieter Mack and Peter Eötvös on the Wergo label.

Joshua’s discography also includes releases on Kairos, Integrated Records, NMC, HCR, New Focus, and Torpor Vigil, and collaborations with some of the world’s most notable composers have resulted in an extensive list of premieres. Recent solo albums as improviser and producer include ‘Sol’ (2018), ‘Distant Air’ (2020), and ‘How far do you have’ (2021), exploring ambient landscape and instrumental textures.

As a composer, Joshua is particularly interested in the creation of immersive performance contexts, instrumental ambient textures, and electroacoustic works. Recent works include ‘after you think, missing’ developed in residency at Royaumont for soundinitiative; ‘folding outwards into traces’ for solo flute and electronics, written for Derek Jones; and sound installation ‘Distant Air’ performed most recently at Borealis Festival in Bergen. Joshua’s compositional work often incorporates his own video and visual art: the series of improvisational contexts ‘Vertical Horizons’ links live processing of sound and video projections to create an immersive ambient sonic and visual environment.

In 2011, Joshua won first prize and audience prize at the 3rd International Jean-Marie Londeix Saxophone Competition, and in 2014 was awarded a Kranichsteiner Musik Preis at the Darmstadter Ferienkurse. 

Since September 2020, Joshua is professor of saxophone and chamber music at the Geneva University of Music (Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève). He has previously held teaching positions at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels (CRB), the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts (MDW), and the Graz Performing Arts University (KUG).

A graduate of the Paris Conservatory (CNSMDP) in saxophone, chamber music and improvisation, his saxophone teachers include Claude Delangle, Vincent David, Marie-Bernadette Charrier, Barry Cockroft and Ian Godfrey. Improvisation mentors have included Vincent LeQuang, Alexandros Markeas, Evan Parker and Rob Vincs; compositional guidance has come from Damien Ricketson, Pierluigi Billone, and Steven Takesugi; and he studied piano in Paris with Françoise Buffet-Arsenijevic. Joshua also holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts in composition from the University of Sydney, Sydney Conservatorium.

Joshua Hyde is a Selmer Paris artist.