Sam Pilafian, Arizona State University Professor of Tuba/Euphonium,
is perhaps best known as a founding member of the internationally
renowned Empire Brass Quintet. He has also recorded and
performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the New York
Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the Metropolitan
Opera Orchestra, the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Lionel Hampton, and
Pink Floyd. As a solo jazz artist, Sam has recorded fifteen
CDs. He is also a member of the large brass ensemble Summit
Brass. Solo recital and concerto performances during recent
seasons have taken him to Canada, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan,
Italy, Austria, Germany and England. As an arranger, composer and
recording producer, Sam has recently produced and written for Joseph
Alessi (New York Philharmonic), the Boston Brass, the Brass Band of
Battle Creek, the Academy (of Drum Corp International), and the United
States Air Force Band. Sam is the coauthor with Patrick Sheridan of
the best selling pedagogy texts and DVD’s “Breathing
Gym” and “Brass Gym”.
In 1967, Sam won the concerto competition at the
National Music Camp in Interlochen, Michigan, becoming only the second
tubist in over fifty years to do so. He subsequently won
fellowships at Dartmouth College and the Tanglewood Music
Center. While at Tanglewood he was invited by Leonard Bernstein
to perform on-stage in the world premiere of Bernstein's MASS, which
opened the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He is
currently Professor of Music at Arizona State University, having
previously served for twenty years on the faculties of Boston
University and their summer Tanglewood Institute. Sam has won
the Walter Naumberg Chamber Music Award, the Harvard Music Association
Prize, the University of Miami's Distinguished Alumni Award, the
Brevard Music Center Distinguished Alumni Award, the Robert Trotter
Annual Visiting Professorship at the University of Oregon, the annual
Outstanding Teacher Award for the College of Fine Arts at Arizona
State University, a 2006 Spirit of Disney Award for creativity and
design in a Drum Corps International Gold Medal winning performance,
and a 2009 Emmy Award for best instructional/educational video from
the National Association of Television Arts and Sciences. Sam has
previously served as president and chairman of the board of the
International Tuba Euphonium Association.