Joel Styzens
Music
Chicago, IL
Music
Joel Styzens is an award-winning musician and composer, a recording artist and producer, an educator, and a hearing conservation advocate. Styzens specializes in piano, hammered dulcimer, drums, percussion, and guitar and has performed across the U.S. and Europe. His newest album, Resonance, was named a “Top 10 Contemporary Album of the Year” by The Guardian. The BBC calls it “open-hearted” and NPR says, “Phenomenal music.”
Styzens began his career as a professional drummer but a sudden onset of severe tinnitus and hyperacusis changed his musical trajectory and guided him to his unique voice and passion as a composer. As he began therapy, he began writing lower-volume acoustic music, incorporating a diverse set of influences. His Neo-Classical style blends the rhythmic sensibilities and nuance of jazz percussion with the texturally rich and dynamic emotion of classical and world music. It’s a sound that breathes, where silence and space are as much a part of the music as notes themselves. Styzens creates evocative and intimate, acoustic soundscapes that invite listeners to pause, reflect, and tune out the chaos.