Joe Reynolds is currently completing a MA at the Royal Academy of Music (2024–2026), where he studies cello with Hannah Roberts, baroque cello with Jonathan Manson, and piano with Xiaowen Shang. He has taken part in masterclasses with Steven Isserlis, Arto Noras, Lawrence Power, Adrian Brendel, Anthony Marwood and John Myerscough.
Previously, he graduated with a First-Class BA in Music from the University of Oxford (2016–2019), during which he attended masterclasses with Yo-Yo Ma, Natalie Clein and Guy Johnston. Before this, he studied at the Royal College of Music Junior Department (2008–2015), where he trained with Alexander Boyarsky alongside studies in piano, composition, improvisation and music theory.
Recent and forthcoming engagements include duo recitals at St Mary’s Church in Aylesbury and at the Hertfordshire Festival of Music, as well as a performance at the launch event of the British Cello Society. He has performed with the Academy Baroque Soloists and Rachel Podger, and took part in the Two Moors Festival Duo Residency 2025, where masterclasses with James Baillieu, Tamsin Waley-Cohen and Adrian Brendel culminated in performances of Beethoven and Debussy cello sonatas.
He was also Quartet-in-Residence at the Lake District Music Festival, performing in streamed concerts from Victoria Hall (Grange-on-Sands) and Hawkshead Parish Church. Other recent engagements include appearing as soloist in The Sacred Veil by Whitacre at Duke’s Hall in 2025, serving as Co-Principal of the Knussen Chamber Orchestra at the Aldeburgh Festival 2025, and performing Brahms’s String Sextet and Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht with the Barbican Quartet at the Angela Burgess Recital Hall of the Royal Academy of Music.
He has served as principal cellist with the Royal Academy of Music Symphony and Chamber Orchestras under Ryan Wigglesworth and Trevor Pinnock, and performed the Elgar Cello Concerto with the Forest Philharmonic Orchestra.
Alongside his concert activity, he raised over £1,000 for charity through two duo recitals in Cambridge featuring cello sonatas by Brahms, Delius and Vierne, and gave a professional duo recital in Stoke-by-Clare.
His recent awards include the Historical Women Composers Prize, second prize at the Harold Craxton Prize 2026, the Derek Simpson Award 2025, second prize at the Delius Prize 2025, finalist recognition at the North & East London Young Musician of the Year, the Wayne Sleep Foundation Award, the Help Musicians Ian Fleming Instrumental Award, second prize at the D’Addario String Competition (2024 and 2026), and both First Prize and the Susanne Beer Prize for the most outstanding performance across all categories at the North London Festival for Music.
He has been student of Fondazione Accademia di Musica since 2026.
