Adding youth and depth
At 19, tuba player Robert Black is the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s youngest member. Green Sheet,
If Robert Black drops out of college, and that day could be coming soon, his professor and his parents aren’t going to cry or scold.
Black, 19, beat out dozens of older musicians to win the job of tuba player in the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra through a blind audition process. He’s the orchestra’s youngest musician and only member of the Gen Z cohort.
He signed his contract in early 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted chances to play last spring. So Black will make his MSO subscription debut March 6, playing Paul Hindemith’s “Morgenmusik,” though he did play a Christmas music quintet with MSO colleagues in December.
A calm speaker, Black finds it easy to explain why he enjoys being an orchestra tuba player. A tuba — and the low brass section — adds fullness in an ensemble filled with higher register instruments.
“I just really love being … the person that gets to add that (depth) to the whole sound of the ensemble,” he said.
Modest goal, high achievement
Black said he likely became a tuba player because his late godfather, who played the instrument, gave his family a small E-flat three-valve tuba. Black’s mother was a middle school and high school band teacher, and both his mom and his older sister played horns, so brass music was a regular part of family life in Vernon Hills, Illinois.
As he progressed with the instrument, Black played in the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra and won several youth competitions, including the United States Marine Band Concerto Competition.
After finishing his college auditions and choosing Rice University in Houston, Black took part in the 2019 auditions for the Milwaukee Symphony’s open tuba position with 61 other musicians. He did not expect much to come from it.
“My kind of goal was if I can advance past the first round, I’ll consider it a success,” he said.
In the “elephant room” where the tuba auditioners warmed up, he recognized musicians he knew from Facebook, people who already had jobs. But to his pleasant surprise, Black made it through to the final round, playing excerpts from Bruckner’s Seventh with a professional trombone section for the first time.
The MSO didn’t hire a player out of that audition, but Black went off to his freshman year at Rice with helpful feedback. “I really just spent that entire year just kind of practicing and trying to correct everything that I could so that when the second audition came around, you know, I would be in as good of a position as I could be,” he said.
At Rice, he worked closely with professor David Kirk, who is also the principal tubist of the Houston Symphony.
“It was clear to me from when I first heard him that he would have a very short time as a student. He was destined for professional success,” Kirk said during a telephone interview.
For his second audition in January 2020, in attempting to prepare as much as possible at Rice while still making his flight to Milwaukee, but with dorms closed for winter break, Black slept on a couch in a practice room for a few days. He approached the auditions ready to play as one of 17 invited musicians, knowing it was up to the MSO “if they like what I’m selling.”
He also was not certain the orchestra was ready to hire a musician his age.
But after the final round, assistant personnel manager Rip Prétat took him to meet the panel of musicians and music director Ken-David Masur, who welcomed him to the orchestra. When he called him to let his parents know, “both started screaming basically. They’re super excited.”
Black has both personal and musical maturity, Kirk said. “He plays with a great sound, he has great clarity, has a very wide range, it’s very reliable for him.” Unlike with some other instruments, every note a tubist plays can be heard, even when playing softly, Kirk said. So a tubist needs grace under pressure, he said.
“Robert is an incredible musician,” principal trombonist Megumi Kanda said in an email message. “He is sensitive to his surroundings and has great style. His playing and blending skills are remarkably mature, especially given his youthfulness! His ability and willingness to musically interact and adjust quickly will make him a great fit.”
Lest Black’s parents have any concern about his adjustment to life in the MSO, Kanda wrote: “As his neighbors in the orchestra, the trombones are a nurturing bunch; we will take good care of him!”
Kirk said he has counseled Black on integrating himself into the orchestra. Ask questions, don’t make statements, he has told the young musician: “You have to be respectful of the fact that those people have been playing music together for so long. They have their own habits, their own customs and they must be respected.”
Concentrating on the job
Because orchestra members have been mostly sidelined from public performances by the pandemic, Black has been able to continue his college work remotely.
“As for college, I haven’t made a decision yet. I intend to finish my bachelor’s degree, but I’m not sure if that will be at Rice or a more local college,” he said in a follow-up email. “I plan to concentrate mostly on the job for the first few years.”
In his Milwaukee apartment, he has three functional tubas, plus a piano and an electric bass, an instrument he plays for fun.
Hindemith composed “Morgenmusik” — the work that Black, Kanda and their colleagues will perform March 6 — in 1932 for students at a German school, as part of a suite of compositions to be played throughout the day. Hindemith labeled it “to be played from the top of a tower,” in keeping with a tradition of greeting the dawn with music.
Black noted there are ways to perform this work without tuba, so he is pleased to be included. “My goal is … to populate the lower end of the audio spectrum … hopefully make the piece sound more complete to the listener,” he said.
The Milwaukee Symphony is offering 12 Classical and four Pops concerts to subscribers this season online through live streaming and video on demand. Once they’ve debuted, all 16 programs will be available on demand to subscribers through June. A virtual subscription costs slightly less than $210, or about $13 a concert, For info, visit mso.org.