Prior to joining the TCU faculty, Joseph Eckert served as Associate Professor of Saxophone and Director of the Jazz program at Shenandoah University in Winchester, VA. where he joined the faculty fulltime after retiring from a 20-year career as lead alto saxophonist/woodwind specialist and music director for the United States Air Force "Airmen of Note" in Washington, DC.

Prior to joining the Airmen of Note, he was Professor of Saxophone and Director of Jazz Studies at West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia (1981-84), where his ensembles were awarded for their excellence and he received the “Outstanding Teacher Award” for 1982-83. While with the “Note” he toured extensively across the North and South America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. He has performed with some of the great names in jazz to include Louie Bellson, The Brecker Brothers, Bob Mintzer, Peter Erskine, Jimmy Heath, J. J. Johnson, Cleo Laine, Mike Mainieri, Carmen McRae, Clark Terry, Kenny Werner, Paquito D’Rivera, Joe Williams and many others. Some of his free-lance activities have included performances with the Dallas Symphony, the Fort Worth Symphony and the National Symphony Orchestra and tours with Liza Minelli and Nelson Riddle. Comfortable in both jazz and classical idioms, he is the only member of the faculty at Shenandoah to have been a guest soloist with the Symphony Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble and Brass Quintet.