American keyboard player Joseph Payne was born in 1941 on the Chinese-Mongolian border, the son of British missionary parents. He received his earliest musical training as a cathedral chorister in England and in Switzerland, before emigrating to the United States, where he studied at Trinity College and Hartt College of Music. Based in Boston, where he has lived since 1965, ha has taught at several major American universitites and appears with concerts on the harpsichord and the organ throughout the world.