Harvey Phillips (1929 - 2010)

IU's Harvey Phillips, TubaSantas creator, dead at 80

By Mike Leonard
October 20, 2010, last update: 10/20 @ 11:07 pm

Harvey G. Phillips, the greatest ambassador the tuba has ever known, died Wednesday at his home outside of Bloomington.

“He was one of the greatest living players of the instrument and one of the greatest teachers of the instrument as well,” said Charles Webb, dean emeritus of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. “His students went on to occupy major positions in symphony orchestras and bands across the world. Wherever the tuba was played, you’d find students of Harvey’s.”

Webb said Phillips literally revolutionized the instrument, picking up the legacy of his famous teacher, William Bell, and spreading its popularity beyond orchestras and beer gardens.

“Harvey wanted to make the general public aware that the tuba was not just an oom-pah instrument,” Webb said. “He commissioned more solo works for the tuba and other chamber music than any other single person in the history of music.”

Phillips was born Dec. 2, 1929, in Aurora, Mo., the son of farmers Jesse and Lottie Phillips and the youngest of 10 children. He was taught to play sousaphone in high school by his band teacher, a former circus band leader. He attended the University of Missouri, but left school before graduating to join the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, where he played in the circus band for more than two years.

During his circus travels he met Bell, then a member of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Recognizing the young tubist’s talent and enthusiasm, Bell helped Phillips gain a scholarship to the Juilliard School of Music. Phillips would graduate from Juilliard and also the Manhattan School of Music.

While in New York during the 1950s, Phillips played with the New York City Opera, the New York City Ballet and the New York Brass Quintet.

At the recommendation of Bell, who had become an IU faculty member, Phillips came to Bloomington and joined the IU faculty in 1971. Two years later, he organized the first TubaChristmas concert at Rockefeller Center in New York City and established the TubaSantas tradition in many cities across the country and the world. He launched Octubafest around the same time at his Tuba Ranch outside of Bloomington, also spreading that tradition to other cities.

Phillips’ performance talent and his desire to promote the virtues of the tuba were unparalleled. The press labeled him the “Paganini of the Tuba” and Bell, his mentor, dubbed him “Mr. Tuba.”

For Phillips, the tuba was a magnificent and under-appreciated instrument. But he made it his life’s work to promote the tuba, he also didn’t separate it from the nobility of its peers. “The one thing I always point out is that every instrument is 95 percent human. Even the great Stradivarius violin can’t make a sound until a human gives it a voice,” he said in a 1997 interview.

The IU distinguished professor emeritus won numerous awards and citations during his illustrious career. Among them, in 2007, he was inducted into the Classical Music Hall of Fame, becoming the only brass instrument player to receive that honor.

In 2008, IU President Michael A. McRobbie awarded him the President’s Medal for Excellence, one of the highest honors an IU president can bestow.

Obituary and funeral information is pending from Allen Funeral Home in Bloomington.