Merrill Hall, MU217
Anthony Kniffen is adjunct professor of music in tuba at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
His first professional orchestral experience, at age 18, was as acting principal tuba in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for a concert under Sir Georg Solti. A year later, Kniffen joined the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra for eight seasons and has been principal tuba of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (ISO) since 1997. His teachers have included Daniel Perantoni and Harvey Phillips, both at IU, Gene Pokorny and Arnold Jacobs of the Chicago Symphony, Robert Tucci of the Bavarian State Opera Orchestra, and Floyd Cooley of the San Francisco Symphony.
A highlight of Kniffen’s career was performing the John Williams Concerto on an ISO Classical Series Concert under the baton of Mario Venzago in 2008, including a performance at Indiana University. He performed the Indiana premiere of Wynton Marsalis’s Concerto for Tubist with the ISO in March of 2023. He has also appeared as a concerto soloist at the ISO’s outdoor venue, Symphony on the Prairie, and out front for many seasons on their Yuletide concerts, including this year. A winner of four concerto competitions, other solo appearances include regional and international tuba conferences and colleges, including his alma mater, the Jacobs School of Music.
Kniffen can be heard on CSO Resound: The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Brass Section Live. He is the “play-along” tuba player on the Hal Leonard educational project Essential Elements 2000 and numerous other play-along projects. He can also be heard on a tribute CD to IU jazz legend David Baker, Basically Baker.
Kniffen has performed with the Saint Louis, Minnesota, Detroit, and New Mexico symphony orchestras and recorded numerous discs with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. In the 1990s, he toured the U.S. extensively with Summit Brass (“America’s Large Brass Ensemble”) and Japan with Sierra Brass.