Dr. Joshua W. Rohde is the Director of Choral Activities at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where he conducts all four of the university’s choral ensembles—Alden Voices, Glee Club, Festival Chorus, and the Chamber Choir. At WPI, he overhauled the choral curriculum to create a program where the diverse and poignant repertoire the students perform helps to shape their view of the world, empathize with others, and express their emotions related to difficult and important issues. In the classroom, he added the topics-focused course Music in Time of Conflict, which combines elements of theory, history, and analysis to use music as a tool to address issues such as the destruction of war, rehabilitation in prisons, and medical studies involving Alzheimer’s. Rohde was the WPI 2021 Recipient of the Romeo L. Moruzzi Young Faculty Award for Innovation in Undergraduate Education and 2026 Recipient of the Humanities & Arts Award for Outstanding Teaching.
Rohde is the Music Director of the Rhode Island Civic Chorale & Orchestra and an active professional cellist throughout the New England area. His work spans multiple musical genres, including new music from living composers. This is seen through his dissertation on living Scottish composer Sir James MacMillan and work as the founding manager of Harvard University’s New Music Initiative. Notable world premieres of new music include Rohde’s work with Pulitzer Prize winning composers David Lang (Birmingham New Music, England, 2014) and John Luther Adams (Lincoln Center, New York City, 2018).
Previous experience includes work at Boston University’s Marsh Chapel, the Harvard University Choruses, the Quincy Choral Society, the University of Birmingham (UK), and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Chorus (UK). Rohde holds degrees from Boston University (DMA and MSM - Conducting), the University of Birmingham in England (MM - Conducting), and the University of Minnesota (BM - Cello Performance and BS - Civil Engineering). He has prepared choruses to sing for conductors such as Harry Christophers, Andris Nelsons, and John Storgårds. As a soloist, he has played cello concertos with orchestras including Elgar and Shostakovich, and regularly works as a continuo cellist playing the choral-orchestral works of Bach.
Recent performance highlights include: Johannes Brahms – Ein deutsches Requiem; Copland - Appalachian Spring; Handel - Messiah; Haydn - Lord Nelson Mass; James MacMillan – St. Luke Passion (MA premiere) & Seven Last Words from the Cross; Mendelssohn - Elijah; Mozart - Requiem; Ralph Vaughan Williams – Dona Nobis Pacem; and works by living composers Grace Brigham - Discoveries (premiere); Jessica Curry – The Durham Hymns (USA premiere); Matthew Jaskot - The Bluer the Sky (premiere); Mary Montgomery Koppel - HeLa (premiere); Martin Sedek - Nature has a Thousand Choirs (RI premiere); Timothy C. Takach - We Are Phoenix (MA & RI premieres), and Joel Thompson - The Seven Last Words of the Unarmed.
