Brass
Tuba
News Story
Warren Deck Joins Faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music
February 13, 2025
Contact
Courses Taught
Applied Tuba
Chamber Music
Education
Associate Degree, Arapahoe Community College
Ensembles
New York Philharmonic, 1979-2001
Houston Symphony, 1977-1979
Q&A
What is your hometown?
Denver, Colorado
What is your favorite recording?
Strauss: Four Last Songs, Jessye Norman. The final work of a great composer performed by a generational vocalist.
What are you passionate about outside of music?
Photography, hiking
Who were your major teachers?
Abe Torchinsky
What is a favorite quote that you repeatedly tell students?
When they struggle, I tell them “It’s supposed to be hard. Mastering the difficulty is what makes what we do great.”
What question do you wish students would ask sooner rather than later?
To work on audition material
What was the defining moment when you decided to pursue music as a career?
I was in 7th grade and thought being in music for a living would be a great thing. It is!
What was a turning point in your career?
Winning an audition for the Houston Symphony. I had previously been “freelancing” in New York, which really meant working as a brass instrument repairman at a music store.
If you weren't a musician or teacher, what do you think you would be doing now?
Something else in the arts, like sculpting, photography, or woodworking.
If you could play only three composers for the rest of your life, who would they be?
Mahler, Strauss, Bruckner
What is your unrealized project?
Still working on being a better musician and teacher. I know it will never be realized, but it is fun trying.
What do you think makes a concert experience unique?
The performance is not a recording, and what I call the Evel Knievel aspect comes into play in a live performance. (Evel Knievel was a daredevil - Google him.) Something fantastic may happen and you were there for it, but disaster could also occur. Also that particular performance will not happen exactly the same way again.
What recordings can we hear you on?
Any New York Philharmonic recording from 1979-2001, four Canadian Brass recordings.
Biography
Warren Deck brings decades of experience to SFCM in music performance, education, instrument development, and studio work. He will join SFCM in Fall 2025 with a select studio of students.
Deck's long and illustrious career includes 23 years as Principal Tubist of the New York Philharmonic and many years as a teacher, as well as giving lauded masterclasses across the globe. Before his appointment to the Philharmonic, Deck held the position of Principal Tubist with the Houston Symphony.
Deck is also the recipient of the International Tuba and Euphonium Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Apart from the orchestral records Deck made with the Philharmonic, he has made four recordings with The Canadian Brass for Sony Classical and Philips labels and Tuba, a recording of leading tuba and euphonium players from Germany and the US, on EMI Angel Records. Deck is also a recipient of the International Tuba and Euphonium Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Deck first encountered the tuba at age nine in the Denver, Colorado public school system. At the age of twelve, his family moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan. During the summer, he received musical training at the National Music Camp in Interlochen, Michigan and went on to attend the University of Michigan to study with Abe Torchinsky, former Principal Tubist with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Deck played in the Grand Rapids Symphony and spent four summers as a student and Scholarship Fellow at the Aspen Music Festival in Aspen, Colorado, from 1972-1976. In 1976, Warren left the Grand Rapids Symphony to move to New York City. There, his freelance career included repairing brass instruments at Giardinelli's Music Store in Manhattan. With this knowledge he began collaboration in the mid-1980s with Gerhard Meinl to design and build tubas for the Meinl-Weston Company. The result of that collaboration is three models of tubas, one of which is still in production today.