Tubas
Nicholas Atkinson
Nicholas Atkinson was born in Manchester, England and came to Canada in 1957. He began his musical career playing tuba and bass with Canadian Army bands and later graduated from the University of Calgary with a Bachelor of Music in Performance. He subsequently studied extensively with the legendary Arnold Jacobs of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He also holds a Master’s degree in English Literature from the University of Ottawa.
Since moving to Ottawa in 1973, Mr. Atkinson has been an active tuba player and teacher. He was a member of the R.C.M.P. Band for fourteen years and has played with the National Arts Centre Orchestra since 1976. He has been a soloist with the orchestra on numerous occasions. One of the busiest tuba players in Canada, he has performed with all the major orchestras. During the 1989 season he was principal tuba with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, beginning a long association that included many recordings and international tours. As a chamber musician, Mr. Atkinson is a founding member of the Rideau Lakes Brass Quintet, Ragtime Brass and Capital Brassworks, all of which have been featured on CBC broadcasts and recordings. He has also performed and recorded extensively with the Hannaford Street Silver Band. Every summer from 1993-2010 he organized large-scale brass concerts at the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival.
Mr. Atkinson taught at Queen’s University for ten years and at the University of Ottawa from 1977-2004. He is a well-known brass coach and performing artist for Besson and Yamaha, and has given clinics at schools and universities all over Canada. Since 2006 he has been the low brass instructor for the National Youth Orchestra of Canada.
Mr. Atkinson can be heard in conversation with various artists on a variety of subjects in a continuing series of podcasts on the N.A.C. Orchestra website.
His hobbies include reading (wide-ranging and assiduous), cryptic crosswords (occasional flashes of intelligence) and golf (dangerous fanatic).
Sasha Johnson
Sasha Johnson began his musical training at age 16, studying brass chamber music and tuba with Sam Pilafian at the Empire Brass Seminar of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. He went on to study at the University of Toronto with both Mark Tetreault and Murray Crewe of the Toronto Symphony, with Toby Hanks at the Manhattan School of Music, and with Alain Cazes at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montreal. His additional private teachers have included Arnold Jacobs, , Mel Culbertson, Richard Erb and Alan Baer.
In 1997 Sasha became the first Canadian tuba player to be accepted into the Orchestra Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic. This program trains a small number of young professionals in the sound, style, traditions and standard of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Having begun his professional career in Berlin, Sasha went on to perform with many other European orchestras including the Berlin Symphony, the Berlin State Opera, the Radio Orchestra Berlin, the Orchestre Symphonique de Radio France, The Orchestre de Paris, the Ensemble Modern and the Orchestre Nationale de Bordeaux. He has performed in such music festivals and concert venues as the Lucerne Festival, the Festivale d'Aix en Provence, the Concertgebouw, the Konzerthaus Wien, the Theatre Champs-Elysée, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, the Salzburg Festival the BBC Proms, Tanglewood, Ravinia, and Lincoln Center, under such eminent conductors as Claudio Abbado, James Levine, Pierre Boulez, Essa-Pekka Salonen, Paavo Jarvi, Charles Dutoit, Kurt Masur and Seiji Ozawa.
Sasha returned to Canada in 2001 and has established himself as a prominent performer and pedagogue. He has performed as a regular extra with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, including tours to Europe and Japan; the National Arts Centre Orchestra, and the Toronto Symphony, including playing their 2009/2010 season. He is the instructor of tuba at the Glenn Gould School of Music and instructor of tuba and chamber music at McGill University, as well as an instructor of low brass and chamber music at the National Youth Orchestra of Canada. In January 2009, Sasha was appointed principal tuba of the National Ballet of Canada Orchestra. Sasha is a founding member and administrative director of the Canadian National Brass Project.
Tom McCaslin
Principal Tuba of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Tom McCaslin has been described by as “one of the contemporary tuba virtuosos”. Originally from Regina, Saskatchewan Tom’s playing and teaching have taken him around the globe. He has performed and taught in Canada, the United States, Switzerland, Portugal, Finland, New Zealand and Australia.
Tom has appeared as soloist with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Youth Band of Canada and the United States Army Orchestra. He has recorded for the Canadian Broadcast Company, National Public Radio and performed on Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. He has performed at numerous International Tuba and Euphonium Conferences and at the United States Army Band Tuba and Euphonium Conference held in Washington, D.C.
Mr. McCaslin’s solo recordings appear on the Centrediscs, Crystal Records and Potenza Music labels. His most recent release “Chasing Light and Sound: The Tuba Music of Elizabeth Raum” was received with critical acclaim. Whole Note magazine wrote: “This definitive recording is the realization of McCaslin’s long-time dream to bring attention to Raum’s music and is strongly recommended.”
Tom McCaslin is a Yamaha Performing Artist and plays exclusively on Yamaha instruments.