Joseph Bates
 Joseph Bates is founder and Artistic Director of Music Theatre Ventures, a company that represents dance, music and theatre professionals to training programs across the United States.
Music Theatre Ventures co-produced, and Bates conducted, the mid-west premiere of Only Heaven by Ricky Ian Gordon as part of the 20th anniversary celebration of The Muse Machine and the CD recording of Only Heaven on ps classics. Music Theatre Ventures along with the Human Race Theatre Company produced Under Construction, a symposium on musical theatre with composers Michael John LaChiusa and Ricky Ian Gordon in Dayton, Ohio in 2002, which culminated with a concert of the music of LaChiusa and Gordon featuring the composers accompanying Darius De Haas, Jonita Lattimore, Lee Merrill and Ann Van Cleve and students from Wright State University.
He served as music director and coordinator of voice for the Department of Theatre Arts at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, for 26 years, where he conducted over 35 productions including a concert of the music of Ricky Ian Gordon, Bright Eyed Joy as well as critically acclaimed productions of Parade, Chicago, She Loves Me, Sweeny Todd, and The Most Happy Fella among others. Bates continued his theatrical relationship with Gordon by serving as musical director for States of Independence, Gordon's latest collaboration with director Tina Landau, which premiered at Wright State in fall of 2003 and also at the Sundance Theatre Lab at White Oak as musical director of The Family Project. While at Wright State he was instrumental in bringing Ricky Ian Gordon, Tina Landau, Jason Robert Brown, Michael John LaChiusa, Judy Blazer, Malcolm Gets, Joseph Thalken and Catherine Fitzmaurice to do residencies or master classes.
He also serves as Music Director for the Dayton Opera Artists-In Residence Program and has conducted Candide, The Pirates of Penzance and The Impresario on the mainstage for the company, a well as having served as principle coach for several operas.
Bates has staged over 20 musicals and operas including Violet, Crazy for You, Evita, Into the Woods, The Apple Tree, A Little Night Music and Amahl and the Night Visitors.
His orchestral repertoire includes music by Barber, Bernstein, Poulene, Mozart, and Chausson among others.
He is an associate teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework, a comprehensive approach to voice training that can include, as needed, work on breathing, resonance, speech, dialects, impromptu speaking, text, singing, and voice with movement.
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Last updated July 10, 2007
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