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Music Industry

Ralph Hepola: Tubist Extraordinaire and Winner of a 2024 John Stites Jazz Award

Source: Ralph Hepola
March 2, 2025

Once upon a time the venerable tuba was the foundational time-keeping instrument of a jazz band, mainly because its deep bass register meant it could be heard (the upright bass was sometimes used for indoor gigs). An early proponent of the tuba as an integral part of jazz was Louis Armstrong, especially with his Hot Five group. But by the 1920s, particularly with microphone technology advances, the double bass replaced that big brass beauty in the lineup. Today, tubists form ...

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Award / Grant

Ralph Hepola, John Stites Jazz Awards Winner

Source: Ralph Hepola
November 18, 2024

The winner of the John Stites Jazz Awards represents the epitome of artistic achievement in the world of jazz. Through their unparalleled talent, dedication, and creativity, past winners of the prestigious prize have earned their place among the genre’s leading performers, educators, and advocates. After months of anticipation, the winners of the prestigious John Stites Jazz Awards have been revealed. This year, amidst stiff competition and extraordinary performances, tubaist and bandleader Ralph Hepola emerged as one of only three winners ...

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Music Industry

Muralist Paints Tubaist

Source: Ralph Hepola
October 17, 2024

Nationally-recognized muralist Roberto Regalado has created a portrait of tuba soloist Ralph Hepola. The painting has been accepted into the juried “Pure Enjoyment” art exhibit at Springfield Regional Arts Council in Missouri. Pure Enjoyment “celebrates the freedom, beauty and harmony of the natural world.” Regalado featured the sun prominently in this 50 x 50-inch work, which he painted from a photo he took of Hepola performing as direct sunlight blazed off his tuba. The opening reception is part of the ...

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Music Industry

Bass Meets Tuba - Tubaist Ralph Hepola Records With Legendary Bassist Bob Bowman

Source: Ralph Hepola
September 16, 2022

The tuba is one of the most powerful and prominent instruments in the symphony orchestra. Tubaist Ralph Hepola has played on outstanding classical recordings (see selected discography below), but this summer he’s recording with world-class jazz musicians including a giant among bass players: legendary bassist Bob Bowman has toured and recorded with Freddie Hubbard, Carmen McRae, Bud Shank, Karrin Allyson, Bobby Watson, Steve Houghton, John Stowell, Bob Sheppard, Steve Allee, the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra and the Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin ...

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Award / Grant

Missouri Arts Council Picks Tubaist Ralph Hepola For April Featured Artists

Source: Ralph Hepola
April 24, 2021

FEATURED ARTISTS PROGRAM Artists are the backbone of our creative state. Get to know some of the best right here! Each month, we’re designating four individual artists from all around Missouri as Featured Artists. They create and perform in every sort of genre, from sculpture to storytelling. Meet our April Featured Artists! Ralph Hepola musician | Springfield JAZZIZ Magazine has called me “a musician who plays the language of contemporary jazz on the tuba.” I play the same types ...

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Music Industry

Ralph Hepola’s Tuba Carves Out A Place For The Much-Maligned Horn In Modern Jazz

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services
October 12, 2020

Ralph Hepola’s Tuba carves out a place for the much-maligned horn in modern jazz. The virtuoso tuba player leads his quartet through a set of his freewheeling originals, playing with remarkable fluency as the lead instrument. While the tuba has often been stereotyped as a limited instrument that keeps time in marching bands, Dixieland and polka groups, Ralph Hepola on Tuba makes a strong case for his horn being the lead voice in a modern jazz combo. A brilliant player ...

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Recording

Veteran tuba master Ralph Hepola creates a dynamic, supremely soulful new lead voice for the idiom on his eclectic debut album 'Tuba'

Source: Ralph Hepola
July 2, 2020

Invented in both its bass and tenor forms in the 1830s by instrument builders Wilhelm Friedrich Wieprecht, Johann Gottfried Moritz and Johann’s son Carl Wilhelm Moritz, the tuba played a prominent role over the next century in the works of Strauss, Stravinsky, Wagner, Prokofiev, Brahms, Gershwin and others. Having played for several years with the Basel Symphony Orchestra in Switzerland and in the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Music Festival in Austria as part of a five-year stint in Europe ...

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Music Industry

Ralph Hepola Makes A Strong Case For The Tuba As A Lead Instrument In Jazz

Source: Ralph Hepola
June 30, 2020

The tuba, like the banjo and the accordion, has sometimes had an image problem during the past century. While it has had an important role in classical music and early New Orleans jazz, the tuba has often been associated with Dixieland, amateur bands, and comedy. There have been exceptions such as its use in the Miles Davis Birth of the Cool nonet, Gil Evans’ groups, and Howard Johnson’s tuba ensemble Gravity. There have also been around a dozen impressive tuba ...

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