Marc Dickman

Dr. Marc Dickman is Associate Professor of jazz studies and low brass at the University of North Florida where he conducts Jazz Ensemble and tuba/euphonium choir. His versatility on euphonium, trombone, bass-trombone, and tuba in the classical and jazz styles places him in much demand in the Southeastern United States. Dr. Dickman won the Artist’s Division of the International Leonard Falcone Competition in 1990. He is principal euphonium with the St. John’s River City Band, and trombonist with the River City Swing Orchestra. He performed on bass-trombone with the legendary One O’Clock Lab Band while attending the University of North Texas and appears on the CD, Lab Band ’95. Dr. Dickman frequently appears as a soloist and clinician and in January of 2002 he conducted the Florida All-State Jazz Ensemble. Dr. Dickman is a founding member of the groundbreaking jazz ensemble, the Modern Jazz Tuba Project. The MJT Project has two critically acclaimed releases; Live From the Bottom Line, and Favorite Things. He is featured with the Swamp Dog Jazz Band on Home and Keepin’ Out of Mischief Now. His first solo recording, A Weaver of Dreams, is available at cdbaby.com and iTunes. Dr. Dickman earned degrees from Troy State University, McNeese State University, and the University of North Texas. Dr. Dickman is the creator and executive director of the highly acclaimed North Florida Summer Music Camps.

Velvet Brown

Velvet Brown is the David P. Stone Endowed Professor for the School of Music at Penn State and the Associate Director of the School of Music for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. Brown is also Artist Faculty at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. Velvet Brown enjoys a career as professor, international soloist, composer/arranger, chamber ensemble performer, recording artist, conductor, and orchestral player. She has performed and taught in Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Finland, France, England, Hungary, Slovenia, Russia, Japan, Cuba, Canada, and the United States. Ms. Brown is currently the principal tubist of the New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra. Brown was honored to be principal tuba with the Hope and Harmony Ensemble which recorded a video of fanfares for the 2021 Presidential Inauguration conducted by Marin Alsop. She has served as principal tuba with the River City Brass band, guest principal with the Lahti Philharmonic in Finland, the Detroit Symphony, San Francisco Women’s Philharmonic Orchestra, and as substitute or additional tubist with the Saint Louis Symphony and Fort Wayne Philharmonic. Velvet Brown has been an invited solo artist or tuba solo artist adjudicator at the International Tuba and Euphonium Conferences since 1998. She has also served as guest conductor for festivals in the United States in Maine, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania as well as abroad in Austria, Finland, Italy, Slovenia, Japan, and Canada. Brown is a founding member of Boston Brass and is founder and current member of Stiletto Brass Quintet, Monarch Brass Quintet and Brass Ensemble, the Quintet of Americas, and the Pennsylvania Brassworks. She has been honored to arrange and compose for many of these groups as well as receive commissions from other artists for her original compositions. Velvet Brown serves as the Artistic Director of the Tuba and Euphonium Fest for Orvieto Music in Orvieto, Italy, and previously served as the Artistic Director of the Chromatic Brass Collective. She was on faculty for the Domaine Forget Music Académie in 2024. She is also a founding board member of the International Women’s Brass Conference. She has released six solo CDs and has collaborated on several other recordings as a soloist and ensemble member, such as Stiletto Brass Quintet featuring Doc Severinsen, trumpet, on one of her original compositions, Testimony (Howard Johnson and Gravity) as lead tuba, and a solo tuba jazz recording, Lonnie’s Lament with the Cleveland Jazz Ensemble. Velvet Brown is a Buffet/Crampon Performing Artist and a performing artist for Denis Wick mouthpieces, mutes, and accessories.

Mark Glover

Mark gained his Bmus(hons) degree from the Welsh College of Music and Drama in 2002 where he was guided by Richard Adams, Andy Fawbert, Chris Mowat and Robert Childs. He also had opportunities to play with bands like Tongwynlais, Cory and Tredegar. Next, Mark completed a PGCE in secondary education. During this time, Mark played for the Staffordshire Band and won a selection of best soloist prizes plus qualified for the National Finals on two occasions. In 2010, Mark joined the GUS Band under John Berryman. In December 2011, Mark moved to live in Singapore, where he became the Principal Study Lecturer of Euphonium at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, the principal euphonium tutor for the Singapore Armed Forces Band and also taught brass instruments in international schools. Mark was a finalist in the ITEC 2012 euphonium competition and has performed in Brunei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Australia. In 2015, Mark gave the world premiere of Zaidi Sabtu-Ramli’s Euphonium Concerto in Brazil and performed as a guest artist at the ITEC 2016 in the USA. After 5 years in Singapore, Mark and his family moved to Dubai where he became the head of music at a prestigious international school. During this time, Mark recorded his first solo CD which is called ‘Hustle’. Mark performed with a wide variety of ensembles in Dubai, including an ethnic fusion group and an oompha-pop band but his highlights were a concerto performance in Taiwan in 2018, ITEC 2019 in the USA and a solo recital in Pune, India. In 2021, Mark moved back to the UK and started working with the Staffordshire Music Service. He performed at The Royal Albert Hall with the WFEL Fairey Band but is currently the solo euphonium of the world famous Grimethorpe Colliery Band. He plays exclusively on a Custom Sterling Virtuoso euphonium and K&G mouthpiece. His website and blog can be found at www.markglovermusic.co.uk.

Øystein Baadsvik

Øystein Baadsvik is voted one of the top ten brass players in history by the listeners on Classic FM. He did the first TED talk on the topic of tuba and is one of the most popular classical musicians on YouTube with more than eight million views. His multi-faceted musical career as a soloist and recording artist has taken him all over the world. He regularly gives masterclasses and clinics at major universities worldwide. He studied under the celebrated tuba player Harvey Phillips, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Department of Music, Indiana University, and with the legendary Arnold Jacobs, who had a forty-year career and position of Principal Tuba with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Øystein Baadsvik’s international career began in 1991 when he was awarded two prizes at the prestigious Concours International d’Exécution Musicale in Geneva. At this point he had developed an amazing virtuoso technique and was very well equipped musically, to step out on the world stage. His international engagements include performances with Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic, L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Musica Vitae (Swedish Chamber Orchestra), the Taipei National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, Orchestra Victoria of Melbourne, Warsaw Philharmonic, Wratislavia Chamber Orchestra, Gdansk Philharmonic, Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Sweden’s Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, and the Singapore Philharmonic. Øystein Baadsvik is well known for his masterclasses and tuba clinics which are frequently held in numerous leading universities throughout the United States. including The Juilliard School, Indiana University, Cleveland Institute of Music, and Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. He works constantly to expand the musical aspects of the tuba, performing solo repertoire for tuba and orchestra, and collaborating with leading musicians in a wide variety of genres. This includes the Indian violinist Dr. L. Subramaniam and singer Kavita Krishnamurthy, Norwegian jazz pianist Erlend Skomsvoll and the Norwegian female choir Cantus. In all these genres, his guiding principle has been to communicate directly with his audience. His development of new tuba-playing techniques has been used in a number of more recent works for the instrument. In praise of his performance in Warsaw, the critic for the newspaper Ruch Muzyczny, said, “After listening to the concert with Baadsvik as soloist in the Tuba Concerto of Ralph Vaughan Williams with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Christopher Seaman, the reviewer wishes that pianists and violinists should study the tuba for at least one year during his education to learn where to find models for phrasing and rubato tempo.” Øystein Baadsvik has premiered some 60 solo works by composers from the USA, Russia, Sweden, Norway, and Switzerland. He has added to the tuba literature with his own compositions. The most well known is Fnugg, that has become tremendously popular and is played by tuba players worldwide. Mr. Baadsvik is an active recording artist whose CDs receive unstinting praise. His first CD on the BIS label, “Tuba Carnival”, was released in over 40 countries and became an instant hit. It is offered through the Musical Heritage Society, a premier source of classical music recordings and is rapidly becoming a popular classic with public radio broadcasts on BBC, NPR, ABC radio in Australia, SR in Sweden and NRK in Norway as well as other radio stations in New Zealand, Poland and Germany. It was recommended by the music magazine ClassicToday as one of the six best recordings in the world for solo instrument and orchestra in 2003. The magazine said, “State of the art recorded sound caps an extremely well planned, perfectly executed recital in which humor, charm and virtuosity combine to make the best possible case for the tuba as the star of the show.” His 2006 Carnegie Hall recital debut featured the works recorded on Danzas, which is also on the BIS label. Another important recent release from BIS, is the recording of the music of Kalevi Ano, ( b. 1949), one of the leading Finnish composers of his generation. Mr. Baadsvik performs his Concerto for Tuba and Orchestra with the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jan Sandström. Germany’s Klassik.com said, “borders are redefined. Five out of five stars for interpretation and sound quality.” Composer John Williams said about Baadsvik’s recording of his tuba concerto: «His rendering of my concerto far surpasses anything a composer might hope for» Note: For audio clips and further information, please visit www.baadsvik.com

Beth Wiese

A native of Davenport, Iowa, tubist Bethany Wiese was appointed to the Blair faculty in fall 2023 as Associate Professor of Tuba and Euphonium. She formerly served at Appalachian State University and spent two years as a fellow of the New World Symphony. Dr. Wiese has been a prizewinner in several solo competitions including the International ‘Citta di Porcia Brass Competition (Italy), the Musicians’ Club of Women Scholarship Competition (Chicago), the Union League Civic and Arts Foundation Scholarship Competition (Chicago), and the Leonard Falcone International Tuba and Euphonium Competition. Additionally, Wiese is an alum of summer music festivals including the Tanglewood Music Center, National Repertory Orchestra, National Orchestral Institute, and Aspen Music Festival, and has been invited to present recitals and masterclasses nationally and internationally. Leading a diverse performance career, she currently serves as Principal Tuba of the Asheville Symphony Orchestra and has performed with a wide variety of ensembles including the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra (Denmark), Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, Macao Orchestra, Korean Broadcasting Orchestra, and Nashville Symphony Orchestra. She holds degrees from Northwestern University (DM), Yale University (MM), and Lawrence University (BM).

Adam Frey

Adam Frey travels the globe sharing his talents as a performer and advocate for live music. Adam has soloed with orchestras and bands the world over, including the world famous Boston Pops, Cheju Symphony Orchestra (South Korea), US Army Orchestra (Washington DC), Harvard Pops (MA), Fort Collins (CO), Indian Hill (MA), the Vaasa Symphony Orchestra (Finland), Atlanta Philharmonic (GA), Camerata Eleutheria (Argentina), Cascade (WA), Greensboro (NC), Clemson (SC), LaGrange (GA), Minot (ND), Bellevue Philharmonic (WA), and Northeastern (MA) Symphony Orchestras. He also performs regularly with wind bands and brass bands that have included Soli Brass in Holland, Point of Ayr in Wales, the National Youth Brass Band of Switzerland and wind bands from Singapore, Thailand, Brazil, South Korea, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Columbia, Peru, Australia, Russia, Finland, China, Germany, Hong Kong, and the United States. Adam has been guest soloist at festivals around the globe, including four times at the Midwest Clinic (USA), the WASBE Convention (Singapore), Melbourne International Festival of Brass (Australia), Trombonanza (Argentina), Carlos Gomez Festival (Brazil), Jeju International Wind Festival (South Korea), Asia Pacific Band Directors Conference (South Korea), Westby Low Brass Workshop (Norway), Peru Low Brass Festival (Peru), Colombia Festubal (Colombia), Tubmania (Thailand), and Orquesta Latinoamericana de Vientos (Colombia) to name a few. A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Adam Frey received his musical training at the University of Georgia, the Royal Northern College of Music, and the University of Salford. As a major ambassador of the euphonium, Adam has more than one hundred and twenty works that have been composed or specifically arranged for him. Most are published by Euphonium.com Publications, Pinnacle Brass Publications, and Absolute Brass.com. For 17 years, Adam has hosted the International Euphonium Tuba (IET) Festival at Emory University. This event each June hosts more than 175 students and teachers from around the world in a week of playing, learning, and inspiration. Participants range from high school and college students to adult amateurs. More details at: www.IETFestival.com Adam Frey serves as Associate Professor at the University of North Georgia. His website, www.euphonium.com, contains sound files, performance schedules, photos from his world travels, and his recordings and publications. Adam Frey is a Yamaha Performing Artist and Guest Clinician

tuba

SSG Brandon Benson

Missouri City, TX

Group: Tuba-Euphonium Workshop - Featured Artists

Joined the Band: 2022

Alum: University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music

SSG Brandon Benson, a native of Missouri City, TX, joined The U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own” in October of 2022. Benson began studying music at the age of 11 with his mentor, Ali Jackson, and went on to study music performance at University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, under Timothy Northcut. Benson was selected to attend the Rafael Mendez Brass Institute in 2019, where he won the mock audition competition at the age of only 17. Furthering his ambition to become a professional musician, Benson was a finalist for 5 premier military band auditions, while only in his first two years of university study. As a music educator, he has taught lessons and masterclasses in his native Texas region, while actively pursuing educational pursuits in the DC metro area. Outside of music, Benson enjoys going to the movie theater, exercising, and playing video games with his friends.

MUC Bryce Edwards

U.S. Navy Band

Chief Musician Bryce Edwards, a native of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, joined the Navy Band in 2007. He earned a Bachelor of Music in music education from Tennessee Technological University and a Master of Music in performance from Indiana University. He was the first euphoniumist to win each university’s concerto competition. He was also a contributing author to The Euphonium Source Book, the definitive guide for euphonium pedagogy. Edwards is frequently a featured soloist with the Navy Band, including multiple national concert tours. A member of the Tuba/Euphonium Quartet, he has also performed with the Navy Band Brass Quartet. His principal teachers are R. Winston Morris and Daniel Perantoni.