BORN IN: Eagle Lake, Maine

LIVES IN: Houston, Texas

PLAYING SINCE: 2003

BIGGEST INFLUENCES: Houston Symphony Timpani and Percussion Section, Greg Zuber, Daniel Druckman, Craig Hauschildt, Eric Harper

MOST MEMORABLE PERFORMANCE YOU PLAYED IN: Shostakovich 10 on cymbals standing next to David Herbert on timpani and Doug Howard on snare. Unforgettable.

MOST MEMORABLE PERFORMANCE YOU DIDN’T PLAY IN: Mahler Symphony No. 2 with the New York Philharmonic

CAREER HIGHLIGHT: To see members at The Percussion Conservatory winning jobs!

FAVOURITE SABIAN CYMBAL: HHX 18” Mediums

Joshua Vonderheide is the founder of The Percussion Conservatory, an educational, crowd-sourced content platform that provides classical percussion artists with a digital classroom to share and learn from one another. Vonderheide is on a mission to solve the accessibility issue in classical percussion, aiming to create the world’s largest library of classical percussion content and provide full-tuition scholarships to young musicians in the process. He is also a co-founder of the International Timpani Intensive and the owner of Space City Percussion, a new percussion rental business in Houston, Texas.

After successful auditions in 2023 and 2024, Vonderheide regularly subs with the Houston Symphony on both percussion and timpani. He was previously the Sub-Principal Percussionist with the Malaysian Philharmonic from 2017 to 2022, covering the timpani role as needed. As a young musician, Joshua was a three-time Texas TMEA All-State Orchestra participant, fostering a lifelong passion for the audition process. He now leads a robust private studio in Houston and frequently gives masterclasses on related materials. Vonderheide takes pride in being a dedicated and empathetic teacher.

Vonderheide is an alumnus of the Verbier Music Festival, the Music Academy of the West, the Aspen Music Festival and School, and the Texas Music Festival, all attended on full scholarship. He was a proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship at The Juilliard School, where he completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees under the tutelage of Mr. Gregory Zuber and Mr. Daniel Druckman. Before winning his first position in Malaysia, he returned to his home state of Texas for additional Artist Diploma studies with Matthew Strauss at Rice University.