Double bell tuba

Double bell tuba
Double bell tuba

Friday, October 22, 2010

Harvey Phillips (1929 - 2010)


Professor emeritus, musical innovator passes
By Alex Benson | IDS








A photo of Harvey Phillips, distinguished professor emeritus and life-long tuba player, hangs on the wall of his protege, professor of tuba Dan Perantoni.

It hangs with other well-known, but now deceased musicians.

Phillips, 80, died in his home Wednesday of Parkinson’s
disease.

Perantoni said the musician did for tuba what Bob Knight did for Indiana basketball — positively speaking.

“Phillips was the busiest tuba player — ever,” Perantoni said.

Phillips began his career as a teenager in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Band. He also did freelance work composing jingles from 1950 to 1971 while playing around the world in various bands and orchestras.

In 1954, he helped found the New York Brass Quintet, and he joined the IU faculty in 1971.

Over time, the tuba player garnered dozens of honors.

He was the first wind instrument player to be inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame, and in 2008, he received the IU President’s Medal for Excellence — one of the highest honors a president can bestow.

Even the former governor of his home state, Missouri, declared a weekend to be “Harvey Phillips Weekend” in 1985.

Phillips changed the way musicians and critics thought of the tuba.

He made people listen, and in return, “ ... all brass players and all music benefited,”
Perantoni said.

Phillips’ tuba solos captured composers’ attention, which caused them to compose specifically for the instrument.

“The tuba is a musical instrument just like anything else,” Perantoni said. “I can put many words to it. That’s the good thing about brass instruments.”

Phillips was founder and president of the Harvey Phillips Foundation, Inc., which sponsors several worldwide music events to bring tuba players together.

One of his favorite events, Perantoni said, was TubaChristmas.

“Nobody loved Christmas more than Harvey,” he said.

Octubafest, for which IU music students are currently preparing, is another annual event initiated by Phillips.

The performance will take place at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Ford-Crawford Hall.
“Life goes on ... as Harvey would do,” Perantoni said.

It was Phillips, Perantoni said, who lassoed him into playing tuba — Perantoni now occupies one of the offices Phillips used before he retired.

Phillips is survived by his wife, Carol, and sons Jesse, Harvey Jr. and Thomas.
Parkinson’s disease began to take its toll on Phillips during the last decade of his life, his wife Carol said.

In 1998, after retiring from IU, Carol said he was trying to play a tune with no vibrato but couldn't do it.

Carol and Harvey would have been together for 57 years this February.

“And I’d do it all over again,” Carol said.

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