With the utmost concern for the health and safety of our participants, faculty, staff, and guests in mind, Brass Day will not host an in-person event in September 2020. We are currently planning to provide tips, tricks, and helpful information via email this fall. Make sure you have joined our mailing list!
GEORGIA STATE BRASS FACULTY
Eric Bubacz
Georgia State University
Eric Bubacz has an extensive career as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral performer. He studied for three years at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY before transferring to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he completed his Bachelor of Music. While in school, Eric was a member two different brass quintets, both of which competed and placed second at the New York Brass Conference Quintet Competition. During the summers, he attended several noted festivals including the National Repertory Orchestra, Rencontres Musicales d’Evian, Sully Music Festival, Centre d’Arts Orford, Harmony Ridge Brass Seminar, Festival of Art and Musical Excellence and Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, where he was the first tubaist to win the Chamber Music Prize. Shortly after graduating from Curtis, he attended the Colonial Euphonium and Tuba Institute where he won second prize at the International Tuba Solo Competition. He also placed first on tuba in the International Women’s Brass Conference Solo Competition.
As an orchestral player, Eric has been named principal tuba of the Haddonfield Symphony (1992-1997), the Canton Symphony (1998-2006) and the Reading Symphony (1996-present). He has also performed as an extra musician with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra and the Cleveland Blossom Festival Band. In 1997, Eric began working as an extra with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. By 2000, Eric was also playing with the Pittsburgh Symphony Brass and can be heard on several of their recordings, including Cantate Hodie – Sing Forth this Day and The Spirit of Christmas. From 2002-2005, Eric regularly acted as principal tuba of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Highlights of his work with them include four European tours, three performances at Carnegie Hall and a performance at the Vatican for Pope John Paul II.
Since moving to Atlanta in the 2006, Eric has become an active teacher and performer throughout the Southeast.
Alexander Freund, Trumpet
Georgia State University
Born in Germany, Alexander studied with Rainer Auerbach (Berlin State Opera), Robert Platt and Konradin Groth (Berlin Philharmonic) at the University of Arts in Berlin, and Peter Leiner (Radio Orchestra Saarbrücken) at the University Saar in Saarbrücken. He studied with with Jens Lindeman, Fred Mills, Tim Morrison, Hannes Läubin, and James Thompson. In 2016 he began his Doctoral Degree at the Schulich School of Music at the McGill University in Montreal with Richard Stoelzel.
Alexander has been invited to play with the Berlin State Opera, the Cologne Radio Orchestra, NDR Symphony Orchestra Hannover, and Tenerife Symphony Orchestra. He performed under conductors Daniel Barenboim, Semyon Bychkov, and Giuseppe Sinopoli.
He was Co-Principal Trumpet with the Opera Bremen, Soloist at Deutsches Theater Berlin and played in Disney’s “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”. From 2003 until 2018 he lived in México where he was principal of the Symphony Orchestras of Michoacán and Nuevo Leon. Alex was Professor at the Conservatorio de las Rosas in Morelia, from 2005 to 2016.
Alexander Freund is a founding member of M5 MEXICAN BRASS where he has performed in more than1000 concerts. He has also performed as a soloist in Mexico, the U.S., Canada, Peru, Korea, Italy, Germany, and France.
William Mann, Trombone
Georgia State University
William Mann joined the faculty at Georgia State University in the fall of 2013, where he is assistant professor of trombone and serves as brass area coordinator. His duties include teaching the trombone studio, coaching brass chamber music, teaching brass techniques and overseeing the brass area. Prior to his appointment at GSU, Dr. Mann taught at Morehead State University, the University of Missouri, Prairie View A&M University and the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor. In addition to college teaching, Dr. Mann taught instrumental music in the Texas Public Schools and served as a private studio teacher for over 12 years.
Dr. Mann is regularly sought after as a lecturer, clinician and performer throughout the United States and Brazil, including the Bay View Music Festival in Bay View, MI, and the Festival Nacional de Musica in Goiania, Brazil.
In the summer of 2012, he won second place in the overall solo competition at the International Women’s Brass Conference in Kalamazoo, MI, competing against other brass musicians from around the world.
Dr. Mann’s orchestral experiences include performing with groups such as the Lexington Philharmonic, Ohio Valley, West Virginia, Quad-City, Missouri, Tuscaloosa, Meridian, Victoria and Waco Symphonies. He has also performed with the Austin Lyric Opera, as well as the Victoria Bach, Texas Music and Hot Springs Music Festivals, and the 49th Armored Division Band. His jazz experience includes performing with the Di Martino Osland Jazz Orchestra (DOJO) and the Waco Jazz Orchestra, among others.
Dr. Mann also enjoys performing in various chamber music settings. He was a founding member of the Austin Brass Ensemble and the LEX4 Trombone Quartet, and has performed with the faculty quintets at Morehead State University, the University of Missouri and the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor.
In the fall of 2007, Dr. Mann premiered Trifecta, for solo trombone and brass quartet, by Kenyon Wilson, written for Dr. Mann upon his appointment to the faculty at the University of Missouri. He performed the same work, arranged by the composer for solo trombone and tuba/euphonium ensemble, at the 2008 Southeastern Composers League Forum, with the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Tuba/Euphonium Ensemble, under the direction of the composer. Dr. Mann can also be heard on two recordings in the Hot Springs Music Festival Orchestra: the Grammy-nominated Edmond Dédé – Orchestral Works and Louis Moreau Gottschalk – A Night in the Tropics on the Naxos Label.
Dr. Mann received his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in trombone performance from the University of Texas at Austin in addition to a Bachelor of Music Education from Baylor University. His primary teachers include David Gier, David Jackson, Donald Knaub, Allen Barnhill, John Marcellus and Nathaniel Brickens. Additional experiences include studies with Scott Hartmann, Dennis Wick, John Kitzman, James Thompson, Michael Powell, Ronald Barron, Matt Vaughn, Joe Burnam and Jay Evans.
As a professional trumpet player, he has performed in all musical mediums from symphony orchestra to jazz quartet and has free-lanced all over the world. He is currently active as a clinician, an adjudicator, and as a freelance trumpet player.
As a jazz educator he is the past president of the Georgia Association of Jazz Educators and past chair of the International Association of Jazz Educators Curriculum Committee. He is currently the Director of the Rialto Youth Jazz Orchestra and the musical director of the Rialto Jazz for Kids middle school jazz outreach program.
He is director of the GSU Faculty Jazztet which performs regularly in Atlanta and has appeared at the Atlanta Jazz Festival, the High Museum Jazz Series, the International Association for Jazz Education Conference and many other venues. He has performed with such world-renown jazz artists as Kenny Werner, Clare Fischer, John Hart, Kevin Hays, Conrad Herwig, Marc Copland, Randy Brecker, Paul McCandless, and others. As a clinician/teacher he has served residencies and performed at the Conservatory of San Juan, P.R., the Taipei American School in Taiwan, the Singapore American School, the Bangkok International School, Columbia College Chicago, The Conservatory of Bordeaux, the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and the Royal Northern Conservatory of Manchester, U.K.
His podcasts, Jazz Insights, have been featured on a number of websites including the New York Times and have been downloaded over 12 million times since May 2009 His CD, The Strangest Thing, was released on Jbird Records in May 2008 and his latest CD, Destination, was released in May 2012. He is a Van Laar trumpet clinician.
