TBJ99: Tom Holtz
Andrew Hitz
Tom Holtz is a former member of “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band in Washington, DC. Tom is also an active freelance musician in both classical and jazz venues across the mid-Atlantic region.
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TBJ91: Jarrett McCourt
Andrew Hitz
Jarrett McCourt is the Principal Tubist of the Winnipeg Symphony and frequently speaks passionately about mental health issues affecting musicians.
Read MoreTBJ87: Craig Knox
Andrew Hitz
Craig Knox is the Principal Tuba in the Pittsburgh Symphony and teaches at Carnegie Mellon and The Curtis Institute.
Read MoreTBJ85: Tom McCaslin
Andrew Hitz
Tom McCaslin is the Principal Tuba of the Calgary Philharmonic and is a world-renowned soloist and teacher.
Read MoreTBJ77: Deanna Swoboda
Andrew Hitz
Deanna Swoboda is a one hell of a musician and businesswoman. She teaches tuba and euphonium as well as entrepreneurship at Arizona State University, is the former tuba player for Dallas Brass and the woman behind Brass Rap.
Read MoreTBJ76: Doug Rosenthal
Andrew Hitz
Doug Rosenthal is a phenomenal trombone player for the Washington National Opera and one hell of an awesome human. Love this guy! What a great interview we had with him while he was in Chicago playing Bass Trumpet on the Lyric Opera's Ring Cycle.
Read MoreTBJ74: Bill Pritchard
Andrew Hitz
Bill Pritchard is a bad, bad man. He is a good friend and one hell of a creative force within the brass and tuba world today. I love how he is always moving his art forward, not just trying to "master" what he can already do. We can all learn a lot from him.
Read MoreTBJ73: Weston Sprott
Andrew Hitz
This was one of my favorite episodes we've ever done of The Brass Junkies. Weston Sprott, Acting Principal Trombone of the Metropolitan Opera, is as thoughtful a human being as you will ever find. We talked about his incredible career and also went into the diversity issues still facing the industry today. A lot of food for thought.
Read MoreTBJ72: Michael Clayville
Andrew Hitz
Michael is a founding member of Alarm Will Sound, a group that has been awarded the ASCAP Concert Music Award for “the virtuosity, passion and commitment with which they perform and champion the repertory for the 21st century” and which has been called the “future of classical music” by the New York Times. In addition to being its trombonist, Michael is also the Director of Marketing for Alarm Will Sound.
Read MoreTBJ71: Jonathan Dorn
Andrew Hitz
Jonathan Dorn has played tuba for everyone from Leon Redbone to The Philadelphia Orchestra and got to hang out with John Belushi in the 70s, 'nuff said. He shares incredible (and hilarious stories) from over 50 years in the business.
Read MoreTBJ69: Brian Hecht
Andrew Hitz
My good friend Brian Hecht, bass trombonist for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, joined us on The Brass Junkies to talk about the incredible career he has had. This dude has played with the Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra and over a dozen other major symphony orchestras. And he's only 32 which is insane.
Read MoreTBJ66: Joanna Hersey
Andrew Hitz
Without a doubt this is the most important conversation that we've had in 2.5 years of Brass Junkies interviews.
We were joined again by our dear friend Joanna Hersey who is currently the President of the International Women's Brass Conference. She went in depth about what it is like to be a woman in a male-dominated brass world. Probably my favorite part was when she offered some incredibly practical suggestions for how we can empower young women who play brass.
Read MoreTBJ62: Andy Bove of Bove Audio
Andrew Hitz
Andy Bove is one of the most talented dudes I know. As you will hear in this episode, we go way back to 1991 when we were both students at the Empire Brass Seminar at Tanglewood.
Seriously, Andy is a phenomenal tuba player, one of the best recording engineers in the world and just an all-around incredible musicians. I have learned so much from him over the years. I had a whole lot of fun making this episode.
Read MoreTBJ60: Joanna Hersey
Andrew Hitz
Joanna rocks! She is one of my favorite tuba players, can teach her tail off and is just one of the most energetic, positive people you'll ever meet. She is just an A+ human. I could interview her every week and never get bored.
Read MoreTBJ58: David Silverman of The Simpsons
Andrew Hitz
David Silverman plays a sousaphone with flames shooting out the bell and was one of the original animators on The Simpsons! I feel like this possibly makes him the perfect human.
In all seriousness, he is a Hollywood legend and a fixture at Burning Man. What a life this guy has led! It was a blast talking to him about all of it. (Especially asking him about the Simpsons episode that featured Phish!)
Read MoreTBJ50: Alex Lapins and Tony Tortora
Andrew Hitz
This was perhaps the funniest episode we've done yet. A listener took us up on a challenge we never thought anyone would ever do: perform an audition behind a screen on a vuvuzela. We were true to our word and had the University of Tennessee student on the podcast but didn't tell him that his teacher was on the line, too. Hilarity ensued. Dr. Lapins also went into some great details about preparing for a college auditions.
Read MoreTBJ41: Dennis Askew
Andrew Hitz
Dennis is one of the best tuba players and teachers you'll ever met. It was only a matter of time before he was running the whole show at UNCG because they don't come much smarter than him, which you can tell from this interview.
Read MoreTBJ35: Patrick Sheridan
Andrew Hitz
Pat is one of my best friends and one of my biggest inspirations as both a musician and an entrepreneur. His career is unparalleled between being a member of the President's Own Marine Band and one of the most in-demand tuba soloists in the world. They broke the mold with this guy. And while I've never taken a single lesson from him, I consider him one of my teachers. He's that good.
Read MoreTBJ28: Dan Perantoni
Andrew Hitz
Dan Perantoni! What is there left to say about this guy? A true legend in the tuba world. He's done it all from teaching tuba and euphonium at Indiana University for over 20 years to a spectacular playing career. He has enough stories about the tuba world and the music business to fill about 10 episodes.
Read MoreTBJ23: David Zerkel
Andrew Hitz
David Zerkel is, in my opinion, one of the handful of best tuba soloists in the world. He is a phenomenal musician and musical storyteller who just happens to play the tuba. Don't get me wrong, he is also one of the best tuba operators in the world, but it is his storytelling that leaves me in awe and usually headed to the practice room after hearing him perform.
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