Drummer and composer Joshua LeBlanc-Demers is a young emerging artist who finds his voice in a blend of contemporary classical, jazz, rock, and improvised music.
As a drummer, Joshua blends intensity, delicacy, and intimacy into a sound that is uniquely his own.
As a composer, Joshua likes to explore the nearly limitless possibilities of large ensemble writing, but also enjoys working with the constraints that come from writing for smaller groups and uncommon instrumentations. While his large ensemble works come almost entirely from his compositional processes and musical preferences, he also likes to take inspiration from the styles and identities of the musicians he is collaborating with when writing for small groups. Due to this, Joshua’s compositions make a unique collection of pieces that can be so different from one another that they hardly seem to be written by the same composer. Taken all together, however, a clear compositional identity emerges.
Joshua studied jazz drumming and composition with renowned drummer and composer, John Hollenbeck at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Here, Joshua performed with McGill’s leading jazz ensemble, Jazz Orchestra I, which eventually became the first jazz orchestra to premiere one of his compositions when they performed “Rhus Typhina” in April 2023. In 2023, he graduated with a Bachelor’s in Jazz Performance on the Deans Honour List and Outstanding Achievement in Jazz Drums. He is now pursuing a master’s in contemporary jazz composition in Bern, Switzerland, where he is studying with Django Bates, Ralph Alessi, Stefan Schultze, and Jim Black.
Joshua has founded and led his large ensemble and various smaller groups. Currently, his focus is on expanding his repertoire for large ensembles, but he also writes for a variety of smaller projects and works occasionally as a side musician.
Contact