Tuba Euphonium Studio Master Class with Jim Self

Legendary Hollywood tubist and composer Jim Self presents a master class with students from the U-M Tuba & Euphonium Studio. Free and open to the public; presented as part of a campus residency with Dr. Self sponsored by the Sally Fleming Guest Master Class Fund.

JIM SELF is a Los Angeles based freelance and studio musician, a veteran of thousands of motion pictures, television shows and records, and tuba soloist on many prominent movies. His tuba was the “Voice of the Mothership” in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Other solos can be heard in many of John Williams’ sound tracks including Home Alone I & II, and Jurassic Park, James Horner’s Casper, Jerry Goldsmith’s Dennis the Menace and Marc Shaiman’s Sleepless in Seattle. For many years he was first tuba for John Williams, James Horner, James Newton Howard, John Debney, and others. Jim has recorded with hundreds of artists including Placid Domingo, Mel Torme, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand and Don Ellis. He is principal Tuba/Cimbasso with the Pacific and Pasadena Symphonies, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and the Los Angeles Opera Orchestras. He has recently worked on Star Wars VII,VIII and IX and Indiana Jones 5 with Williams. In the 2007-2008 season, Pacific Symphony commissioned him to write a feature work called “Tour de Force”. This 13 minute piece was premiered in April 2008 at the Symphony’s home, the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Hall in Orange County. To date Jim has composed over 100 works for symphony, band, brass band, chamber music and solo works.

Born in 1943 in Franklin, Pennsylvania, Self holds degrees from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Catholic University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Southern California, where he recently retired after 48 years as Adjunct Professor of tuba and chamber music. In March 2003, Self was given a Distinguished Alumni Award by Indiana University of Pennsylvania – a university-wide honor only given to 290 of its more than 100,000 graduates. In addition, in June 2008 Self received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Tuba-Euphonium Association at the Cincinnati Conservatory. In the March 2019 issue of the AFM International Musician Jim was on the cover and featured in an extensive story. Early in his career he was in the U.S. Army Band in Washington, DC and was the Tuba professor at the University of Tennessee. Jim has produced 23 solo jazz and classical recordings that feature jazz greats like Gary Foster, Pete Christlieb, Francisco Torres, Ron Kalina and Warren Luening. Many feature his own unique instrument, the FLUBA (picture a tuba-sized Flugel Horn). His latest recordings are Flying Circus, Music for Brass Quintet – all original music by Jim Self featuring 25 of the top brass players in Los Angeles including 10 members of the Pacific Symphony; Out on the Coast – a triple CD by the 13-piece David Angel Jazz Ensemble; and three Duo jazz CDs with guitarist John Chiodini: *Floating in Winter, The Light Fantastic, Hangin Out, Touch and Go and Feels So Good. While most of Jim’s CDs are Jazz, several are Classical too. His music is available fro Potenza Music and recordings are available from: www.jimself.com and Bandcamp.com. Jim is a Yamaha Performing Artist. Jim and his wife Jamie are proud to endow many music scholarships at American universities.