School of Music > Academics > Studios & Areas of Study > Tuba

Tuba

​​​The DePaul Tuba studio provides a practical education for those headed towards a career as a professional performance musician. Only a small number of students are accepted into the studio which better matches the reality of orchestra positions available for tubists. Admission is very competitive and students will experience a high level of playing, however the climate within the studio is very supportive. This reflects DePaul School of Music's philosophy of developing the whole person and respecting diverse approaches which has created a nurturing atmosphere for students and faculty. Lessons in the studio are taught once a week. In addition to classes, students participate in master classes on orchestral repertoire and solo literature. In the spring, each student has the opportunity to perform a major solo in recital as well as in a tuba quartet.

Faculty

Andy Smith
Andy Smith

The Tuba Studio

    Tuba students at DePaul get more attention and more playing experience than in larger programs.  The basic philosophy underlying the studio is the concept of a continuous circle of teacher-student-performer that one enters at any point and is an ongoing cycle. 

    Many of the DePaul brass faculty studied with Arnold Jacobs, an American tubist who spent most of his career with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which provides DePaul students with a consistency in the stream of a legendary master's lineage. DePaul University bestowed an honorary doctorate on Arnold Jacobs in 1995 and received his entire personal library upon his death.


    Past Student Performance Repertoire
    Sonata for Violin - Cesar Franck
    Three Furies - James Grant
    Concertino, Op. 77 - Jan Koetsier
    Adagio and Allegro for Horn and Piano, Op. 70 - Robert Schumann
    Concerto for Bass Tuba - Ralph Vaughan Williams
    Horn Concerto No. 2 - Richard Strauss
    Three Romances - Robert Schumann
    Four Serious Songs - Johannes Brahms
    Winks n Jinks - Jim Self
      I remember that after one year of school, during summer break, I went back to listen to a recording I had made of myself preparing Wagner's Prelude to Die Meistersinger for an audition, the year before I went to DePaul. My only means of recognizing the tuba player on the tape was the label with my name on it. After one year's time studying with Floyd Cooley, my playing had changed so much from a fundamental side and musicianship side, that I didn't recognize the player as myself.
                                     - Mike Roylance, Tuba, Boston Symphony Orchestra

      Alumni Accomplishments

        Since 1992, Chicago Civic Orchestra tuba players have been students of Floyd Cooley at DePaul and include Bill Adams, Brendon Lukin, Mike Roylance, Jerome Stover, Peter Link, William Russell, Matthew Lyon, Duncan Spry and David Nelson. 

        Former students of this studio have gone on to positions with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Louisville Symphony Orchestra, Sendai Philharmonic [Japan], US Navy Band, Royal Australian Air Force Band, Alabama Symphony, Honolulu Symphony, Queensland Symphony Orchestra [Brisbane, Australia], Ball State University and Auckland Philharmonia [New Zealand], Boise Philharmonic, US Naval Academy Band and Boston Brass. 
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