Harvey Phillips


Harvey Gene Phillips Sr. was an American tuba player. He served as the Distinguished Professor of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, Bloomington and was dedicated advocate for the tuba becoming popularly known as Mr. Tuba.

Biography

Born in Aurora, Missouri, Phillips was a professional freelance musician in New York City from 1950 to 1971, winning his first professional position with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Band as a teenager. In 1954, he co-founded the New York Brass Quintet, which is credited with popularizing the brass quintet in its most common form: 2 trumpets, 1 trombone, 1 horn, and 1 tuba. In 1960, he co-founded The All-Star Concert Band with American cornet soloist James F. Burke. The band recorded three albums and was composed of virtually every top soloist and first chair player in the country. He served as personnel manager for Symphony of the Air, Leopold Stokowski, Igor Stravinsky, and Gunther Schuller. He was a key figure in the formation of the International Tuba Euphonium Association and the founder and president of the Harvey Phillips Foundation, Inc. which administers Octubafest, Tubachristmas, Tubasantas, Tubacompany, and Tubajazz.
In 2007, Phillips was inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame, the only wind instrument player to receive this prestigious honor. Other inductees that year included Yo-Yo Ma, Donald Martino and the Cleveland Orchestra.
He died of Parkinson's in Bloomington, aged 80.

Awards

With John R. Barrows
  • Harvey Phillips Presents "Tribute To a Friend"
With Kenny Burrell
With Gil Evans Orchestra
  • New Bottle Old Wine
  • Into the Hot
With Curtis Fuller
  • Cabin in the Sky
With Dizzy Gillespie
  • Perceptions
With John Lewis
  • Odds Against Tomorrow
  • The Golden Striker
With Wes Montgomery
  • Movin' Wes
With Gus Vali & His Orchestra
  • A Greek in Dixieland
With 'Matteson-Phillips Tubajazz Consort'