We refine Epstein's method to prove joint concavity/convexity of matrix trace functions of Lieb type a409a2cb63b30686555e376153"> and symmetric (anti-) norm functions of the form , where Φ and Ψ are positive linear maps, σ is an operator mean, and f(xγ) with a certain power γ is an operator monotone function on (0,∞). Moreover, the variational method of Carlen, Frank and Lieb is extended to general non-decreasing convex/concave functions on (0,∞) so that we prove joint concavity/convexity of more trace functions of Lieb type.