Joel Frisch, Director
Dr. Joel G. Frisch has been musical director of the Olney Concert Band since 2013. He is a music educator, a freelance percussionist and timpanist, and maintains a private percussion studio. Many of his students qualify for All-State and All-County honors ensembles.
Dr. Frisch holds degrees in music performance from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University and from Michigan State University. He is certified in music education from Towson University.
As a freelance percussionist and timpanist, Dr. Frisch has performed regularly with orchestras and other ensembles throughout both Maryland and Michigan. Most notably, he served as the Principal Timpanist and Percussionist of the Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra in Daejeon, South Korea where he performed all over the United States and Asia. In 2016, Dr. Frisch was an invited guest soloist at the International Festival of Percussion in Santa Fe, Argentina. There he performed the timpani concerto, Raise the Roof by Michael Dougherty with the Banda Municipal de Santa Fe. At the festival, he also presented a scholarly lecture and demonstration on the history of timpani performance practice and composing for timpani.
Dr. Frisch is a music educator in the Harford County Public School System, serving as the head band director and music department chair at C. Milton Wright High School in Bel Air, Maryland. He is also the director of the Jazz Ensemble and Guitar Ensemble.
He resides in Columbia, Maryland with his wife Dana, son Charlie, their cats, Miles Davis and Ella Fitzgerald, and their dog Miss Bubbles.