Repertoire and additional performers to be announced

About the Artists

Anthony Kniffen is adjunct professor of music in tuba at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and principal tuba at the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (ISO). Kniffen’s first professional orchestral experience, at age 18, was as acting principal tuba in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) for a concert under Georg Solti. A year later he joined the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra for eight seasons before his appointment to the ISO in 1997. His teachers have included Daniel Perantoni and Harvey Phillips, both at IU, Gene Pokorny and Arnold Jacobs of the CSO, Robert Tucci of the Bavarian State Opera Orchestra, and Floyd Cooley of the San Francisco Symphony. Playing along with such diverse groups as folk artists The Makaha Sons of Ni’ihau in Hawaii to the Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra in Indianapolis, Kniffen has also performed with the Saint Louis, Minnesota, Detroit, and New Mexico symphony orchestras, and recorded numerous discs with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. In the 1990s, he toured the United States extensively with Summit Brass and Japan with Sierra Brass. Winner of four concerto competitions, other solo appearances include regional and international tuba conferences and colleges, including his alma mater, IU, and the John Williams Tuba Concerto with the ISO. Kniffen is the “play-along” tuba player on the Hal Leonard educational project Essential Elements 2000. He can also be heard on a tribute to jazz legend David Baker, Basically Baker and on CSO Resound: The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Brass Section Live. His teaching career began at the University of Hawai’i and continued at the University of Indianapolis before joining Butler University. He has also taught at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and Ball State University. In 2015, he traveled to Hokkaido, Japan, for their prestigious annual euphonium/tuba workshop. He is devoted to his lovely wife, ISO violist Amy Kniffen, their children, and their church, and is proud of having completely remodeled their master bathroom without injury, mostly by himself learning from YouTube videos.

Gail Robertson is visiting professor of music in euphonium at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. She has a distinguished reputation as a euphonium artist and teacher, soloist, and clinician. She has also garnered worldwide attention for leadership, for her work as composer/arranger, and as a musical talent. Robertson has also served as associate professor of tuba and euphonium and graduate coordinator at the University of Central Arkansas as well as on the euphonium faculty of the American Band College in Ashland, Oregon. She earned a B.A. from the University of Central Florida and an M.M. from Indiana University, with a D.M.A. from Michigan State University, where she was a university distinguished fellow. Robertson studied with Harvey Phillips, Phil Sinder, Roy Pickering, and Ava Ordman. She performed for 10 years with the Tubafours at Walt Disney World, Orlando, where she was musical supervisor/chief arranger and produced the highly acclaimed CD Tubas Under the Boardwalk. Robertson is past president of both the International Tuba and Euphonium Association and the International Women’s Brass Conference and is vice-president of the Athena Brass Band. Robertson has toured the United States, Europe, Korea, China, and Japan with various ensembles. She has been a longtime member of the Brass Band of Battle Creek, Keith Brion’s New Sousa Band, and Monarch Brass. She has been a featured soloist at the United States Army Band “Pershing’s Own” Tuba-Euphonium Workshop with the U.S. Army Orchestra. She has also performed as a featured euphonium soloist at Carnegie Hall with Purdue University’s Wind Ensemble and with the Boston Symphony Orchestra for its historic performances of Shostakovich’s Lady MacBeth. She has performed as tenor tubist/tubist/bass trumpet with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Sarasota Orchestra, Sarasota Ballet, Arkansas Symphony, and Cincinnati Symphony. Robertson’s published works and arrangements are performed worldwide and are available through Cimarron Music Press and Wright & Round Music Publishers. As a Willson Euphonium Artist, her euphonium of choice is a Willson 2950TA with a bronze Warburton/Gail Robertson mouthpiece.