Joseph Payne was a British/Swiss German harpsichordist, clavichordist, organist and musicologist, whose worldwide reputation was based on his performances of music of all periods, though best known for his pioneering recordings of early keyboard music accompanied by his meticulously informative liner notes.
He was born in the Chahar province of China in 1937, the son of a British father, Joseph, and a Swiss-German mother, Wilhelmina, who were licensed preachers and missionaries to Mongolia. During World War II he and his family were imprisoned in a Japanese internment camp in Shanghai. The family subsequently moved to England and then to Switzerland, where Payne received his primary musical education. where, while studying at the Collège de Vevey, Payne exhibited an aptitude for languages and an interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and started receiving musical education.
Payne's family moved again, this time to Connecticut, where his father became the pastor of Faith Assembly of God in Hartford. However, Rev. Payne's health had been compromised by the tortures of the internment camp, from which he never fully recovered.