MTNA Stecher and Horowitz Competition

2023 Stecher & Horowitz Power of Innovation Award
Joshua Wright

MTNA-Stecher & Horowitz Power of Innovation Award is provided through the generosity of its benefactors and namesakes, Melvin Stecher and Norman Horowitz, whose own life and work epitomized the power of innovation.

Joshua Wright’s work in the field of online music teaching and performance has reached over 175,000 subscribers and nearly 20 million views. Josh has created numerous online video courses to help students of all ages and abilities improve their technique and musicality. With his wife, Lindsey Wright, and the AMAR Foundation, he authored an online beginner piano course for refugees in a camp located in northern Iraq, displaced from their homes due to war and terrorism. With the help of generous donors, over 200 digital pianos were delivered to these camps and two semesters of piano classes were taught to children wanting to learn music.

Josh earned a DMA degree from the University of Michigan and MM and BM degrees from the University of Utah. His principal teachers were. Logan Skelton and Susan Duehlmeier. He has also studied privately with concert pianist, Sergei Babayan. Josh served on the piano faculty at the University of Utah from 2016–2021.

Josh was a prizewinner at the 2015 National Chopin Competition, also winning the Mazurka prize. He won third prize and the audience prize at the 2014 Washington International Piano Competition, first prize at the 2013 Heida Hermanns International Piano Competition, first prize at the 2013 Rosamond P. Haeberle Piano Award competition, the gold medal at the 2010 Seattle International Piano Competition, and first prize at the 2010 American Protége International Competition of Romantic Music. He was the second-prize winner of the 2011 Music Teachers National Association National Competition. He was also a top prizewinner in the New York Piano Competition, the Louisiana International Piano Competition and the Julia Crane International Piano Competition.