An artist of widely diverse musical talents, Mike Forbes (b. 1973) has set forth on a career encompassing all aspects of performing, teaching, composing, and conducting. He began his career as a tubist with the U.S. Army Band, “Pershing’s Own” in Washington, D.C. and since then has served on the faculties of Illinois State University, Mary Washington College, Columbia Union College, Frederick Community College. Currently, Mike serves on the faculty of the University of Nebraska-Kearney where he lectures in music theory and teaches low brass. In addition to performing with a host of regional American orchestras and wind bands, Forbes is the former principal tubist with the Hot Springs Music Festival Orchestra. Mike regularly performs as a guest artist giving clinics and concerts at conferences and colleges across America. He has recently been selected as a composer for Carl Fischer Music, where he specializes in creating works for middle and high school band and orchestra.
As the bottom tubist with Sotto Voce, Mike enjoys a career performing and recording exhilarating chamber music with his low brass brethren. The ensemble is a performing outlet for his many compositions and arrangements for the tuba quartet genre. In addition to those quartet works, Mike has published countless pieces and regularly receives commissions from today’s most well-known brass artists. His works have also been selected for numerous international recordings and competitions. Editions BIM publishes his original compositions for brass while his many arrangements for low brass can be found in the catalogs of Music Express, TubaQuartet.com, and the Tuba and Euphonium-Press.
As a soloist, Mike regularly performs recitals and guest appearance spots around the nation at universities, with wind bands, and at conferences. He can be heard on his premiere solo recording, “Forbes Plays Koetsier” in which he performs all seven tuba solos by Dutch composer, Jan Koetsier. Like Sotto Voce's recordings, this album is carried by Summit Records. Maestro Forbes has also served as the musical director of the Brass Band of Central Illinois and currently enjoys a blossoming career as a conductor often working with high school and youth honor bands and brass ensembles.
Mike studied with Toby Hanks at the University of Maryland (DMA), John Stevens at the University of Wisconsin (MM), and with Mark Lusk and Marty Erickson at the Pennsylvania State University (BM). He has engaged in additional music studies as an exchange student in Manchester, England where he his studied with the late Stuart Roebuck, Brian Kingsley, and Andrew Duncan at the University of Manchester and the Royal Northern College of Music.
Contact: mike @ tubaquartet.com
Mike Forbes plays Koetsier: Jan Koetsier's complete works for tuba
Refractions: Old & New Music for Low Brass
Viva Voce: The Quartets of John Stevens
Consequences - Sotto Voce's premiere album