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oted composer, conductor, author and educator Joshua Missal arrived at the University of Wichita in 1952 as professor of viola and to head the music theory and composition department. It was during his 18-year tenure at Wichita State that most of his more than 50 compositions were written and published.
He also adjudicated and guest conducted at festivals throughout the Midwest and toured extensively with the Wichita String Quartet before retiring from WSU in 1970 to go into partnership with his wife, Pegge, in owning a fine arts gallery in Connecticut, his home state. They later moved the gallery to Scottsdale, Ariz., and retired from the art business in 1984.
A graduate of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., Missal began teaching at the University of New Mexico, where he founded and conducted the Albuquerque Philharmonic Orchestra. After World War II broke out, he served in the armed services and was the Chief Warrant Officer Band Leader of the 608th Air Force band. He returned to New Mexico after the war and then taught for two years at Southern Mississippi University.
Although he retired from conducting and performing in the early 2000s, he continued composing. In 2009, he was, he said, “at work having fun writing ‘Rondo Fantastic’ for full orchestra,” and it was in 2004 that he completed a composition for orchestra written in memory of his wife, who died in 2001 – “Passing.”
Joshua Missal died Sept. 30, 2013, in Mesa, Ariz.
