Praised for his sensitive and nuanced playing, Joseph Crane is a pianist, composer and teacher currently based in Oxford, UK. He began formal lessons with pianist Philip Lange, later receiving a scholarship to study piano under Philip Fowke and Penelope Roskell as well as composition under Deirdre Gribbin at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in 2015.

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Joseph has played in several venues including Cadogan Hall, New College (Oxford), the Denis Arnold Hall (Oxford), 49 Queen’s Gate Terrace (South Kensington) for the Vernon Ellis Foundation, St. Alfege Church, the Old Royal Naval College and venues in and around Nice (France). One of his passions in repertoire lies with modern and contemporary music. Joseph has worked with Robert Saxton, commissioned works by composer Caitlin Harrison, and has frequently played and recorded new works by young composers for auditions to the national colleges of music and composition competitions. Despite this preference, Joseph also feels at home when performing staple repertoire such as Beethoven, Bach and Rachmaninoff. Some past engagements include participating in the Oxford Chamber Music Festival with violinist Marie Schreer, an all-improvisation recital in Oxford and the New Lights Contemporary Piano Festival.

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As a composer, Joseph has frequently played his own works. 2019 saw the premiere of his piece A Sense of Living and he premiered his piece Litany in a solo piano recital in Sherborne (Dorset) in 2017. In the same year, Joseph was commissioned to write a clarinet quartet for students of Trinity Laban. Joseph was granted the Michael James bursary in 2011 for compositions performed in the Wimborne Minster (Dorset). As well as studying under Deirdre Gribbin, Joseph also received composition tuition from film-score orchestrator John Ashton Thomas, Sam Hayden and jazz trumpeter Laura Jurd.