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Winstjon Morris stands center stage,
anchoring a fanfare of gleaming brass
instruments and 26 student musicians
who comprise the oldest and most
recorded tuba ensemble in the world.
A wive of the baton launches his Tennessee Tech
Tuba Ensemble into a baroque classic by Johann Sebas
tian Bach .is the composer never heard it—using only
instruments in the tuba family to create a unique, deep
throated harmony out of the lower bass notes.
“The tuba is not only one of the largest instru-
ments, but it's also the baby in the orchestra,”
Morris says. "It was invented in 1835 when
other orchestral instruments already had been
around a couple hundred years. So the tuba is
still young and ripe for exploration."
Morris, 56, and his famed ensemble in
Cookeville, Tenn. (pop. 23,923), have led the
way, bringing the undervalued instrument out
of the back row and shattering its oafish image
as an oom-pah-pah support player.
“The tuba's role in a band or orchestra is much
more important than most people give it credit
for." says Morris, a professor of music at Tennes
see Technological University. “In most ensem
bles, it is the foundation upon which everything
else is built. It is the bottom layer.”
Titan
►of the Tuba
In the world of lower brass, Morris is a pioneer, creat
ing the world's first tuba/euphonium ensemble in 1967
at Tennessee Tech and shepherding it across four decades.
His tuba bands, whose membership evolves with each
years new wave of incoming students, have performed
in Carnegie Hall seven times, produced 22 commercial
recordings, and generated more than 6(X) compositions
for the tuba, euphonium and tuba ensemble.
“Winston is certainly among the world’s most
influential tubists," says Gene Pokorny, who plays
tuba with the Chicago Symphony. "He has been
the music world’s shock-and-awe factor when it
comes to the tuba ensemble.”
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The tuba is the “foundation” of an orchestra, says Winston Morris.
Winston Morris leads the world’s most famous
tuba ensemble at Tennessee Tech University.
“If you don’t know who Mr. Morris is and you play
the tuba, you’re in the wrong business,” adds Cory
Allen, 21, of Culp, 111., who transferred to Tennessee
Tech in 2005 to study under the popular instructor.
Born in Barnwell, S.C., Morris recognized his
musical gifts beginning in the second grade with
piano lessons. He played the trumpet in middle
school band, but was quickly bored and began exper
imenting with other brass instruments, excelling in
each. When one director asked who wanted to try the
sousaphone—a bulky marching tuba—hanging in
the back of the band room, Morris volunteered.
“It was different, and I liked that,” Morris recalls. “It
was like picking up a Volkswagen, blowing into
the exhaust pipe and making music out of it.”
Morris earned a music degree from East
Carolina University in 1962 and later studied
under renowned tubist Bill Bell at Indiana
University. Recruited to teach at Tennessee
Tech in 1967, he convinced the administration
that creating a tuba ensemble was necessary
for his students' musical development. With
it began tjie kingdom of “tubadom,” as Morris
calls it, where he has endeared himself to sev
eral generations of student musicians.
Sporting trifocals and a thumb-size goatee,
Morris is loud and bombastic and known for call
ing extra rehearsals, occasionally beginning them
(Continued on page 10)
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