Rate My Professor R. Winston Morris

R. Winston Morris served as Professor of Music, Emeritus at Tennessee Technological University in the Arts and Culture faculty from 1967 to 2022. Internationally recognized for over five decades as a leader in advancing the tuba, he is the leading authority on tuba literature, a founding father of the International Tuba Euphonium Association (ITEA), and a major authority on tuba ensemble development. In 1967, Morris founded the Tennessee Tech Tuba Ensemble (TTTE), the first university tuba ensemble, which performed extensively throughout the eastern United States and internationally at events including Bourbon Street, the New Orleans Jazz Festival, Disney World, the National MENC Conference, the International ITEA Conference, the Kennedy Center, the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, and eight appearances at Carnegie Recital Hall. The TTTE released 31 commercially produced recordings, commissioned hundreds of arrangements and compositions, and inspired the formation of tuba ensembles worldwide. As a performer, Morris toured the United States, Australia, Europe, and Japan; was a member of the TUBAJAZZ CONSORT, the Original Jack Daniel’s Silver Cornet Band, and the Tennessee Tech University Brass Arts Quintet for 46 years; and served as soloist with the United States Army Band, Sapporo Wind Ensemble, SLÂ’s Musikkar Concert Band of Stockholm, and Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra. He presented clinics and master classes at state conventions, regional, national, and international tuba workshops.

Morris's scholarly contributions include serving as Senior Editor for the Tuba Source Book; conducting the large professional tuba/euphonium ensemble Symphonia; and founding and co-producing the tuba jazz ensemble, The MJT PROJECT. His publications encompass the Tuba Music Guide (1973, Instrumentalist Company), described as the most comprehensive annotated bibliography for any instrument; Introduction to Orchestral Excerpts for the Tuba (Shawnee Press); numerous transcribed and arranged solo and ensemble works published by The Brass Press and Southern Music Company; and the R. Winston Morris Solo and Ensemble Series (Ludwig Music Publishing Company). He curated the R. Winston Morris Tuba Collection, the world's largest with over 2,000 tuba-related items, earning a Guinness World Record. Morris received the ITEA Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2003 Tennessee Tech University Caplenor Research Award. As Coordinator of Brass Instruction and a Miraphone Corporation consultant for over 60 years, he developed a prominent tuba/euphonium studio with successful alumni in music education and performance.