Big shoes to fill after William Bell, Harvey Philips and Dr. P. They took their time filling the position after Dr P retired last year- so they must have found the guy to carry on that distinguished legacy of excellence. Congrats to Matt. Hope he’s as funny as Dr P was. Never laughed as hard as I ...

There are some orchestras, as stated in the master agreements, that are still given a trial period when “winning” an audition. This starts before the tenure period begins. There was a western US orchestra that chose a “winner” who was given a trial period with the orchestra, and from what I heard ...

kharte_on_tuba wrote: Tue Oct 28, 2025 5:53 pm Congrats to Bridget Conley who won the audition today for principal tuba of the SLSO!

Any idea why the position is still listed as vacant on the SLSO website?

Here's a video demonstrating excerpts on a french C Tuba and a 6/4 CC Tuba.

Is it an embouchure etudes book ?


They are apparently a series of warm ups. Aaron Tindall apparently uses them with his students. I learned about them vis this YouTube video by Steve Rosse.

So, if I had thought about it, I would have known that I could try to get in touch with Aaron or Steve ...

Anyone have a suggestion on where I could obtain a copy of these? Apparently there are two volumes. TIA

Not sure of any video or recording, but I believe Rex Martin used a Rudy 3/4 while subbing in the Chicago Symphony. In fact, that may have been the same horn that Andrew Hitz now owns.


At one time, Rex was a dealer for Rudy Meinl and the exchange rate was very advantageous for US buyers. He had ...

Arnold Jacobs had a saying, "embouchure is not a study of meat, it is a study of sound."

What he meant was that he was less concerned about the physical maneuvers of the student than he was about how they sounded. This did not mean he would approve of a completely off the wall embouchure. He ...

For those who are interested, I did a little research and found the following info regarding who advanced at the audition.

- Cristina Cutts, Mason Soria, Chloe Higgins, and Steve Curtis were advanced from the preliminaries.

- Doug Tornquist, Aubrey Foard, Alan Baer, JaTik Clark and John DiCesare ...

I wonder if the >concept< of hard air versus fast air was a mental concept which was used to encourage students to allow the lips to vibrate nicely with not as much air vs. bullying the lips (perhaps lips that are distorted and overtightened by some player who’s completely worried and concerned ...

I believe I've always concentrated more on lip vibration contributing to sonority (rather than the "air" thing), because - as a guitarist, the right-hand finger technique/efficiency is responsible for the quality and quantity of the sound, and not the "arm" or what-have-you...
...and (though I ...

I admit that I'm one who rejects mouthpiece-alone practice, as it's just not very much the same much-of-anything as when playing.

It would be far more convenient for a bass player to run their bow across the rounded/reeded edge of a straight piece of aluminum, etc., to develop bowing technique ...

I think that this topic somewhat boils down to a miscommunication and/or misunderstanding regarding the definition of "more air."

When I studied with Jake, one of the first things he explained was that the tuba requiores a large volume of air, but at very low pressure (as measured in the oral ...

Any word on how this one went?


Someone has been appointed, but I don’t know who. They were also in the running for St. Louis as well, iirc.


Heard it was Seth Rawleigh. Derek Fenstermacher was the reportedly other finalist.

Also heard that St. Louis pending (i.e., not necessarily a "no ...

I play a Rudy 5/4 CC and use a Mike Finn Helleburg for most things. If I need to play something that emphasizes the upper register, I have a Schilke 62 that works well. It is not really a smaller Helleburg style mouthpiece, but the smaller cup diameter and shallower cup allow me to execute the ...

About the only way to extend range is to manage to squeak out an ugly piece of a pitch, and then spend time over the next weeks making that pitch - or the next one or two or three pitches - sound better than squeaks and more like the rest of your range.
Often, D is a bit nebulous on B-flat tubas ...