Andrew Duncan : Tuba Player

I began playing the Trombone at the age of 11 at school, taught through the West Lothian Schools Peripatetic brass teaching programme. I played with the West Calder Band then both the Whitburn Junior and Whitburn (senior) bands.

In 1980 I studied at Napier College in Edinburgh with Fredrick Freyling Kelly as my Tuba teacher. During this time I played in the National Youth Brass Band of Scotland and the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland. In 1982 my studies took me to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London with James Anderson as my Tuba Teacher. During this time I also had some lessons from the great John Fletcher and played in the Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra and the European Community Youth Orchestra.

Cartoon © Bea Schimmer

I was Principal Tuba in the Halle Orchestra in Manchester from 1984 until 2000. I had the great pleasure of playing in the same section as the following Trombonists: Ian Bousfield, Phillip Harrison, Neville Roberts, Andrew Berryman, Stuart Kempster, Adrian (Benny) Morris and Ros Davis. During my time in the Halle I played in most of the great venues and concert halls in the world playing most of the great (and a lot of the not-so-great) orchestral repertoire for the Tuba. I was also was a member of Halle Brass and have played for the famous ensemble London Brass. In 1998 I gave the world premiere of the Tuba Concerto by John Golland with the Halle Orchestra in the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester.

In my professional career I played on three different models of Tuba.

My main instrument was the Boosey and Hawkes Eb Tuba, over the course of my professional Tuba playing career I had three of these. I also played on both a Miraphone CC Tuba and latterly on a B&S CC Perantucci CC Tuba, which I loved to play most of all, especially in the big stuff. Prokofiev, Mahler, Wagner etc.

I currently taking a well earned break from playing the Tuba as I am enjoying conducting and writing, but at some point in the future I might make a comeback on the Tuba.

Discography

I recorded several CDs as an orchestral Tuba player with the Halle and others, but in this list of CDs, for those who may be interested, I feature as either a Soloist or as a Tuba player in an Ensemble.

CD Title	Performers	Comments
Halle Brass Plays Gregson [Buy at Amazon.co.uk] Doyen036 1996	Halle Brass	All the Halle Brass tracks on this CD were recorded in one very long day! Luckily we were directed by Edward Gregson himself, so this helped us get through the day as quickly as we could. Gregson's quintet pieces are not as well known as his band works, but I think that both his 'Quintet' and his 'Equale Dances' are two of the best pieces written for the Brass Quintet. Both of these pieces are on this CD.
Furioso Harlequin 1997	Halle Brass	Great fun recording this CD. Halle Brass is well known for playing a lot of 'white knuckle' pieces, hence the title 'Furioso'. We all had to record a solo track, so mine was my arrangement of Czardas.
Victory 1999	Whitburn Band Conductor: Phillip McCann	This CD which features several of my arrangements which were originally made at the request of Philip McCann. Philip and I have worked on several projects with many different bands over the years. He has proved to be both a very encouraging and good friend to me. He is well known as one of the most far sighted band conductors who is always on the lookout for new music from outside the band world. The band recording the CD, The Whitburn Band, was the band I grew up with, so when Phillip asked me to not only arrange Tubby the Tuba but also to play the solo part on the CD - how could I refuse!