Tuba Collection
Biography
Winston Morris has been internationally recognized for over five decades as one of the leaders in the advancement of the tuba. He is Professor of Music, Emeritus at Tennessee Technological University, in Cookeville, Tennessee, where he was on the faculty from 1967 to 2022. Morris is regarded as the leading authority on the literature for the tuba, was one of the founding fathers of the International Tuba Euphonium Association (ITEA), and, acknowledged worldwide as the major authority on the development of the tuba ensemble. He was the Senior Editor for the Tuba Source Book, conductor of the large professional tuba/euphonium ensemble, Symphonia, founder and co-producer of the tuba jazz ensemble, The MJT PROJECT, and has been awarded the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award by ITEA as well as the 2003 Tenn Tech University Caplenor Research Award, the most prestigious award presented annually to Tennessee Tech faculty.
As a performer on the tuba, Morris has toured throughout the United States, Australia, Europe, and Japan. He was a member of the acclaimed TUBAJAZZ CONSORT, has performed and toured with the Original Jack Daniel’s Silver Cornet Band and was the tubist with the Tennessee Tech University Brass Arts Quintet for 46 years.
Morris was also very active as a soloist and presenter of tuba clinics and master
classes. He has been the featured clinician at state conventions throughout the United
States; at regional, national, and international tuba workshops; and appeared as soloist
with such ensembles as the United States Army Band, the Sapporo Wind Ensemble, the
SLÂ’s Musikkar Concert Band of Stockholm, and the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra.
The Tuba Music Guide by Morris was published in 1973 by the Instrumentalist Company and was highly regarded throughout the brass world as a definitive publication and reviewed as “the most comprehensive annotated bibliography of music ever compiled for any one instrument.” Other publications of Morris include the Introduction to Orchestral Excerpts for the Tuba published by Shawnee Press and a large number of transcribed and arranged solo and ensemble works for tuba published by The Brass Press, Southern Music Company, and a signature collection of publications, the R. Winston Morris Solo and Ensemble Series, released by Ludwig Music Publishing Company.
R. Winston Morris was one of the founders of the Tubists Universal Brotherhood Association, now ITEA, a 2,500-member professional international organization of euphoniumists and tubists. He has served as President, Vice President, Past President, Publications Coordinator, Journal (Newsletter) Editor, and currently serves on the Honorary Advisory Board of ITEA. In 1967, Morris organized and founded the now internationally recognized Tennessee Tech Tuba Ensemble (TTTE). The TTTE has performed extensively throughout the eastern half of the United States. They have presented performances at regional, national and international symposia and workshops sponsored by ITEA, the International Brass Congress, and the Music Educators National Conference. They have thirty-one commercially produced recordings that have received the highest accolades from members of the music profession. The TTTE is responsible for hundreds of arrangements and compositions for tuba ensemble and for providing the inspiration and leadership for the formation of such ensembles internationally. The TTTE has performed on Bourbon Street and at the New Orleans Jazz Festival, Disney World, the National MENC Conference in Chicago, the International ITEA Conference in Austin, the Kennedy Center in Washington, the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, and eight unprecedented Carnegie Recital Hall appearances and performed at the World Fair in New Orleans and Knoxville.
Morris served for over 60 years as a consultant and clinician for Miraphone Corporation, a leading German manufacturer of professional and student caliber brass instruments. He was Coordinator of Brass Instruction at Tennessee Tech and responsible for a large and very active tuba/euphonium studio. His students have been very successful in the music education field and have won many national auditions in the performance area.
