Percussionist Staff Sgt. Joseph Desotelle of Buffalo, New York, joined “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band in September 2025.
Desotelle began his musical training on percussion at age 9 and graduated from Williamsville East High School in East Amherst, New York, in 2013. He attended The Juilliard School in New York, New York, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in percussion performance in 2017. He then attended Rice University in Houston and graduated with a master’s in music in 2020. Desotelle studied with Daniel Druckman of the New York Philharmonic while at Juilliard and Matthew Strauss of the Houston Symphony while at Rice.
Prior to joining “The President’s Own,” Desotelle performed with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., San Francisco Symphony, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Desotelle has toured internationally with The Philadelphia Orchestra and Kansas City Symphony. He participated in Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California, in 2018; Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts, in 2019; Britt Music & Arts Festival Orchestra in Jacksonville, Oregon, in 2024; and the Music in the Mountains Festival in Durango, Colorado, in 2024.
Desotelle performs with the Marine Band and Marine Chamber Orchestra at the White House in the Washington metropolitan area and across the country during the band’s National Concert Tour.