An artist of widely diverse musical talents, Mike Forbes has set forth on a career encompassing all aspects of performing, teaching, composing, and conducting. He can be heard on his solo album, “Forbes Plays Koetsier” on the Summit Records label where he features all seven works for solo tuba by Dutch composer, Jan Koetsier. Currently, Dr. Forbes is the theory/composition and low brass professor at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. He has previously served as full-time and adjunct faculty at a number of other institutions in the Midwest and on the East Coast.
He began his career as a tubist with the U.S. Army Band, “Pershing’s Own” in Washington, D.C. During his tour, Staff Sergeant Forbes was an active soloist and chamber musician as well as the founder and conductor of the U.S. Army Brass Tentet. Forbes is the former principal tubist with the Hot Springs Music Festival and has also appeared with the Aspen and Chautauqua Festival Orchestras as well as with a host of regional orchestras.
As the former conductor of the Brass Band of Central Illinois, Forbes led the band to a victory in their division at the 2005 North American Brass Band Competition (NABBA). He has served as a conducting fellow with the Hot Springs Music Festival, and has guest conducted the U.S. Army Band and numerous high school honor bands and brass choirs. Forbes is regularly asked to serve as an adjudicator and clinician with today’s finest high school band programs. A regularly commissioned composer and arranger, Forbes’s works have been selected for numerous international competitions and recordings. He is a composer for Carl Fischer Music where he specializes in creating new works for middle and high school band and orchestra. He has received numerous awards and accolades for his published works and regularly receives commissions from today’s most well-known brass artists and band directors. Editions BIM publishes his brass compositions while his many arrangements for low brass can be found in the catalogs of TubaQuartet.Com, Kendor Music and the Tuba and Euphonium-Press.
Dr. Forbes completed his Doctorate of Musical Arts Degree at the University of Maryland and holds a Master of Music degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. During his undergraduate studies at Penn State, he took a year-long exchange program to Manchester, England where he studied at the University of Manchester and the Royal Northern College of Music.
Contact: mike @ tubaquartet.com
Refractions: Old & New Music for Low Brass
Viva Voce: The Quartets of John Stevens
Consequences - Sotto Voce's premiere album