B.M. – Mansfield University
M.M. – Michigan State University
D.M.A. (candidate) – Michigan State University
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Matthew K. Brown, a native of Reading, Pennsylvania, began his musical studies on the classical guitar at the age of seven and started playing the tuba at the age of fifteen. At the age of seventeen he became the grand-prize winner of the Pennsylvania Sinfonia Concerto Competition, and made his concerto debut with the Pennsylvania Sinfonia later that same year to rave reviews: “Brown was exciting…..a tour de force!” (Allentown Morning Call); “The best performance of the {Vaughn Williams} tuba concerto I recall hearing!” (Bethlehem Globe Times) .
While a tuba student at Boston University, he studied with Sam Pilafian of the Empire Brass Quintet, and began his professional chamber music career as tubist and founding member of the award-winning Paramount Brass Quintet. Mr. Brown went on to study at the Peabody Conservatory of Music at Johns Hopkins University with David Fedderly, principal tubist of the Baltimore Symphony. From 1991 through 1993, Mr. Brown was a member of the Washington Brass Quintet, based in Washington, D.C.
A founding member of the Avatar Brass Quintet, he has performed hundreds of concerts throughout the United States, including weekly internationally televised performances from the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Mr. Brown is an active arranger, having arranged and transcribed over one hundred pieces for various brass ensembles, many of which are published by his own publishing company – Hawkeye Music Publications. His arrangements have been performed from coast to coast by ensembles such as the Eastman Brass Quintet, Avatar Brass Quintet, Beaumont Brass Quintet, Mansfield Brass Quintet, Paramount Brass Quintet, and many others. Most recently, he conducted the tuba/euphonium ensemble at the Eastman School of Music - Tuba Mirum - in a number of his own arrangements and transcriptions.
Mr. Brown has held the principal tuba position with the Palm Beach Opera Orchestra, and has also performed with the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra, the New World Symphony, the Miami City Ballet, Ballet Florida, the Greater Lansing Symphony Orchestra, the Ann Arbor Symphony, Alea III, and Ensemble 21.
From 1994 through 2000, he served as a member of the Artist Faculty at the prestigious Harid Conservatory of Music (now the Lynn University Conservatory) in Boca Raton, FL, where he taught applied tuba, coached chamber music, and conducted the brass ensemble. He has also served on the faculty at the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, Michigan State University, and Florida Atlantic University where he was a Schmidt Distinguished Teaching Fellow. His students have gone on to attend schools such as the Juilliard School, the Eastman School of Music, and Yale University.
Currently, Mr. Brown resides in Reading, Pennsylvania with his wife and two daughters. In addition to performing and conducting, he is well known as an avid collector and dealer of antique phonographs, and researcher/lecturer/impersonator of John Philip Sousa. He joined the faculty of the Pennsylvania Academy of Music in 2005, and is an active musician throughout southeastern Pennsylvania.
As John Philip Sousa