New Hire: Matthew Shipes, Angelo State University

Dr. Matthew Shipes has been appointed to the position of Assistant Professor of Music at Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas as of August 2017. His main duties include serving as the applied instructor for tuba, euphonium, and trombone majors, teaching weekly studio classes, coaching brass chamber groups, as well as teaching sections of Brass Methods and Introduction to Music. Matthew was previously a euphoniumist with The United States Air Force Band in Washington, DC, where he had the opportunity to perform for President Obama, several foreign leaders, and for hundreds of ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery. In addition to winning and being a finalist for several international and national competitions on euphonium, tuba, and trombone, he has appeared as a guest artist and given world-premiere performances at events like the US Army Band’s Tuba-Euphonium Workshop, and both regional and international ITEA conferences. Matthew received his D.M.A. from The University of Georgia in December 2014.

New Hire: Fletcher Mitchell, Queensland Conservatorium

Fletcher Mitchell is the new Lecturer in Euphonium at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music - Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. He began serving in this position in February 2018. Fletcher is an Australian-based euphonium soloist and low brass educator. He has given recitals, master classes, and workshops at international brass festivals and conferences as well as performed as a guest soloist with wind ensembles, brass bands, and orchestras across the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Australia. He has been a full time euphonium player with the Royal Australian Navy Band for 11 years and is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Southern Queensland researching Australian euphonium works. Fletcher is a Yamaha Performing Artist and Clinician.

2018 ITEA Teaching Award Recipient Donald C. Little

The Board of Directors of the International Tuba Euphonium Association is pleased to announce that Donald C. Little, Regents Professor of Tuba at the University of North Texas, is the recipient of the 3rd annual ITEA Teaching Award. 

Donald C. Little, Principal Tuba and Cimbasso of the Dallas Opera Orchestra, performs frequently in the Dallas-Fort Worth area with many orchestras and ensembles including the Sundance Brass, Texas Winds Brass Quintet, and UNT Faculty Brass. During summers he performs with the Summit Concert Band and Blue River Brass of Summit County, Colorado. Little has performed and recorded with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Opera Orchestra, Dallas Symphony and the German Radio-Symphony Orchestra of Berlin. He is a former member of the Chicago Civic Orchestra, Colorado Festival Orchestra and York (PA) Symphony. He has also performed with the Chicago, St. Louis, San Antonio, Baltimore, and Wichita Falls Symphony Orchestras as well as the Dallas Wind Symphony. He retired from the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in 2001 after serving as Principal Tuba there since 1980. Now in his fortieth year of full-time university teaching, Little is Regents Professor of Tuba at the University of North Texas College of Music and was previously a faculty member at the University of Northern Iowa. Former students hold or held teaching and performance positions throughout the world, such as in the Hague Orchestra of Holland, the Orquesta del Principado de Asturias of Spain, the Mississippi Symphony, Memphis Symphony, Colorado Springs Philharmonic, Oklahoma City Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Breckenridge Festival Orchestra, Disney World, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy Band, the U.S. Navy Band of Washington, DC, and numerous universities and colleges.

Donald Little has been active in the International Tuba Euphonium Association throughout his career and has served the association in many capacities since 1975 including the offices of President, Past-President, Vice President, Secretary-Treasurer, Conference Coordinator and Chairman of the Board of Directors. He presently serves the association as a member of the Honorary Advisory Board.

Mr. Little has transcribed, arranged, edited and/or composed numerous published works for the tuba, euphonium and brass ensembles with Belwin Mills, Southern Music Company, Kagarice Brass Editions and other publishers. His solo and chamber music publications continue to receive thousands of performances annually at professional, faculty and student recitals, contests, competition and other venues throughout the US and the world. A respected pedagogue and low brass specialist, he contributed instructional materials and solo editions for the tuba and euphonium to Belwin Mills', Medalist Band Course and Contemporary Band Course, which includes his text for high school and college tubists, Practical Hints on Playing the Tuba.

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Donald grew up on the southern New Jersey seashore in Wildwood Crest where his first tuba teacher was Bernard V. Switzer, Jr., who was also his band director at Wildwood High School. He received his B.M.E. at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, where he studied with John Melick, and M.M. at Northwestern University where he was a student of Arnold Jacobs. He has also completed further graduate studies at the Eastman School of Music as a student of Cherry Beauregard. Don is married to Laura Bruton, principal violist with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. They reside with their family in Argyle, Texas.
The ITEA Teaching Award is presented annually to an ITEA member who has been teaching for at least 10 years. Letters of nomination are submitted accompanied by letters of support from current and former students and professional colleagues. Members of the ITEA Board of Directors review the submitted materials and vote to determine the recipient.

The inaugural (2016) recipient of the ITEA Teaching Award was Prof. David Zerkel, of the University of Georgia. Prof. Phil Sinder, of Michigan State University, received the 2017 ITEA Teaching Award.

Vacancy Announcement: ITEA Membership Marketer

The International Tuba Euphonium Association (ITEA) seeks applicants for the new position of Membership Marketer. This is a paid position with a monthly stipend of $325 ($3900 annually). The Membership Marketer will be primarily responsible for the growth, retention, and engagement of the ITEA membership. The Membership Marketer will work closely with the ITEA Executive Director, Web Editor, Journal Editor, Conferences Coordinator, Chapter Coordinator, and Social Media Coordinator.  The Membership Marketer will serve as a member of the Board of Directors of the organization and will be invited to participate in meetings of the Executive Committee. 
For additional information, please download the following PDF: DOWNLOAD DESCRIPTION 

Jose Martínez, tuba, Receives Tenure with National Orchestra of Spain

After a successful audition in January 2017, Jose Martínez was recently granted tenure as the Principal Tuba player of the National Orchestra of Spain. The orchestra makes its home at the National Auditorium of Music in Madrid where it performs the majority of its concerts.
In addition, the ensemble occasionally presents concerts all around Spain and abroad, including tours to Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, and South Korea during the 2017-2018 season. Martínez is thankful for the occasional guidance and support received from Alan Baer, Anne Jelle Visser, Chris Olka, Dennis Nulty, Don Lucas, Floyd Cooley, Ingemar Roos, Jimmy Olsson, Ramiro Tejero, Randy Hawes, Sergio Carolino, Toby Oft and credits a great deal of progress to summer studies at Tanglewood, Music Academy of the West and the University of Redlands. He will forever be indebted to Mike Roylance, Gene Pokorny, Morten Agerup and Sergio Finca, his greatest influences. During his years of full-time study in the USA, Martínez was a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and was fortunate to perform as guest with the Boston Symphony and Pops, Chicago Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and the Saint Louis Symphony. Martínez is currently completing a doctorate at Boston University College of Fine Arts.

Michael Bush (1964-2017)

The International Tuba Euphonium Association mourns the sudden passing of our dear friend and colleague Michael Bush, a member of the Board of Directors and Life Member of ITEA. Hopefully many of you had the opportunity to meet Michael at recent conferences. For those that did, I’m sure you would agree that his enthusiasm for the continued progress and success of our organization was paramount. Serving as our development officer, his work and dedication has been pivotal.

In addition to being a tubist and his service to ITEA, Michael was currently serving as minister at Pisgah Presbyterian Church, Versailles, Kentucky (USA).

For additional information, please visit http://www.blackburnandward.com/memsol.cgi?user_id=2028801.

New Hire: Dr. Jarrod Williams, East Carolina University

Dr. Jarrod Williams began his position as Teaching Professor of Tuba at East Carolina University in August of 2017. His responsibilities there include teaching tuba, the appreciation of music, and performing with the ECU Faculty Brass Quintet. Active as a performer and educator, Dr. Williams is recently retired from a 22-year career as principal tubist with The United States Naval Academy Band. Prior to joining the faculty at ECU, Dr. Williams held teaching positions at Pennsylvania State University, Salisbury University, Goucher College, and Anne Arundel Community College and is a design consultant for the Eastman Music Company.