FBA Master Class: Tubas (HS Ensembles)

Master Class for FBA All-StateTuba Players in the 11/12 Symphonic, 9/10 Concert, Orchestras & HS Honor Bands

Handout(s):
Tuba Warmup Packet
Scale exam (tuba)
Scale exam (euphonium)

William Russell

Boston Brass
Tubist

William is excited to be the newest member of Boston Brass. The band’s unique and entertaining blend of chamber music, jazz, and educational outreach is a perfect fit for a tuba player that is equally at home with Bach and bebop. Prior to joining Boston Brass, William was a co-founder of the Chicago-based quintet Alliance Brass, and he is an alumnus of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. His principal private teachers have included Steven Layman, Kevin Stees, Sam Pilafian, Mike Roylance, Floyd Cooley, jazz trumpeter John D’earth, and bassist Peter Spaar.

As a classical, jazz, and pop instrumentalist, William has performed across the United States in venues from the Corn Palace to Carnegie Hall, and he has toured in Europe with both the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. William can be heard on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Grammy-winning 2008 recording of Shostakovich’s 4th Symphony, and if you look hard enough you might spot him acting as a background musician in the episode “Slave to Memory” from 20th Century Fox’s television show Empire.

When not on the road with Boston Brass, William teaches tuba and euphonium at Northeastern Illinois University. He can also be heard performing with a number of jazz and pop groups around the Chicago area, including the New Orleans-inspired High Hat Second Line; funk/hip-hop brass band J-Livi & the Party; and ARCANA—a quartet that has been described as “Third Stream meets Second Line.”