Bio

          Bill Connors is a freelance tubist based in the Philadelphia area of Pennsylvania. He is an active performer in various local orchestras and chamber ensembles. Also active as an educator, he maintains a studio of regular private low brass students as well as providing clinics and master classes for local schools and communities. Bill is a graduate of the Colburn Conservatory, where he received a Professional Studies Certificate in Tuba Performance. He also holds a Master of Music degree in Tuba Performance from the University of Denver, and a Bachelor of Music Performance from Ithaca College. Bill also spent the majority of the 2018-19 school year at the Curtis Institute of Music as the interim tuba student. Throughout his education, Bill’s primary teachers have included Kathy Brantigan, Warren Deck, Craig Knox, Norm Pearson, and Dr. Aaron Tindall among others.

          Additionally, Bill is also a founding member of The Bella Vista Brass - a new brass quintet comprised of freelance musicians in the Philadelphia area.

          Bill is active on the current orchestral audition circuit as well, and has been a semi-finalist and finalist for several recent principal tuba auditions. While living in Denver, Bill held the position of principal tuba with the Littleton Symphony Orchestra, in Littleton, Colorado for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 concert seasons. The Littleton Symphony is praised as being “one of Colorado’s most respected and versatile community orchestras” and performs on a regular basis, about 6 times per season.

          Bill has attended several prestigious music festivals, including both the Aspen Music Festival and School and the Round Top Music Festival. During his summers in Aspen, he pursued orchestral studies with Warren Deck, and took part in the brass quintet coaching program run by the American Brass Quintet. He also performed weekly with the various orchestras, including the Aspen Festival Orchestra, Aspen Philharmonic Orchestra, and Aspen Chamber Symphony, which were under the baton of many accomplished conductors such as Christian Arming, Leon Botstein, Jane Glover, Hannu Lintu, Ludovic Morlot, and Robert Spano. 

          While at the Round Top Music Festival, he had the pleasure to study with Dr. Justin Benavidez and receive additional coaching from trombonists Lee Rogers of the Washington National Opera/Kennedy Center Orchestra, and Brent Phillips, Associate Professor of Trombone at Baylor University.

          In February of 2017, Bill was a finalist in the first annual Southern California Tuba Mock Audition, judged by a panel of esteemed tubists from the Los Angeles area. Bill was also awarded 2nd place in the Brass Division of the 2017 Pasadena Showcase House Instrumental Solo Competition, held in Los Angeles, California. Bill has been a semi- and finalist in several international tuba competitions. These include the Arnold Jacobs Mock Orchestral, Mock Military Band, and Artist Solo competitions at recent international and regional conferences held by the International Tuba/Euphonium Association.

          Bill performs on the Meinl Weston 6450/2 CC Tuba, and the Meinl Weston 2182/W F Tuba, with which he uses the Denis Wick Ultra Range AT signature series of tuba mouthpieces, designed by Aaron Tindall in consultation with Warren Deck.

          Bill can be heard on Aaron Tindall’s solo album, This is My House… playing both tuba and bass trombone.