Skip Gray
Professor of Music - Tuba and Euphonium

Degrees:
D.M.A. 1994 University of Illinois
M.M. 1979 University of Illinois
B.M. 1977 Baldwin-Wallace College

At UK since: 1980

Telephone number: 859-257-8822
Email: skipgray@uky.edu

Skip Gray's UK Tuba-Euphonium Studio

Skip Gray joined the faculty of the University of Kentucky School of Music in the fall of 1980 and was promoted to the rank of Professor of Music in 1991. He has appeared as a tuba soloist and clinician throughout North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia. He has also served as Principal Tuba with the Lexington Philharmonic since 1980. Gray’s students have been winners of major international solo competitions and hold positions in major performing ensembles and institutions of learning. Skip Gray earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree and Master of Music from the University of Illinois where he was a student of Daniel Perantoni. He earned the Bachelor of Music in Performance from Baldwin-Wallace College in his hometown, Berea, Ohio, studying the tuba with Ronald Bishop of the Cleveland Orchestra.

From 2001 through 2004 Gray performed as a member of the Munich Brass, a professional ensemble based in Germany. During the 1988-89 season and in the spring of 1990, Gray served as Principal Tuba in the Orchestra Sinfonica di Torino della RAI in Turin, Italy. A special interest has been inducing new works for the solo tuba. He has commissioned and given premiere performances of many new works including the Fantasia for Solo Tuba and Brass Ensemble by Allen Vizzutti, Variations on an Aboriginal Melody for Tuba and Woodwind Quintet by Jim Curnow, and the Sonata for Tuba and Piano by Kent Holliday. In 1982 Gray was presented in Carnegie Recital Hall by Twentieth Century Innovations in a program of five new works for tuba and woodwind quintet. Previously, Gray has served as Principal Tuba with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, Champaign-Urbana Symphony, and the Ohio Chamber Orchestra/Cleveland Ballet Orchestra. He has also performed with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, The Florida Orchestra, Knoxville Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, and Breckenridge Music Festival Orchestra.

Gray has presented master classes and clinics at major venues throughout the world including the Hochschule fur Musik in Cologne, Germany, the Royal Victorian Conservatory of Music in Melbourne, Australia, the Sibelius Conservatory in Helsinki, Finland, and many other major institutions in North America and Europe. His clinic entitled TASTY TUBAS! Recipes to change the flavor of your low brass section has been presented at many state music education conferences and, in December 2002, at the prestigious International Midwest Band Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, Illinois.

A large portion of Gray’s professional life has been devoted to Arts Administration. From 1993 through 1998 he served the University of Kentucky College of Fine Arts as Associate Dean. From 1984 to 1987 he was the Associate Director of the UK School of Music. Currently the immediate Past-President of the International Tuba-Euphonium Association (formerly T.U.B.A.), Skip Gray served the organization as Corresponding Secretary from 1982 to 1987 and became its first Executive Secretary, serving two terms in that office from 1987 to 1991. He hosted the 1992 International Tuba-Euphonium Conference held in Lexington at the University of Kentucky. Gray served on the T.U.B.A. Board of Directors from 1996 to 1998. He became a "Life Member" of T.U.B.A. in 1989.

Skip Gray has conducted throughout the United States, Europe, and Australia. Gray was the co-founder and co-music director of the Lexington Brass Band. Under his direction the group performed at the International Midwest Band-Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, the International Trumpet Guild Conference, the Great American Brass Band Festival, and performed at and hosted the North American Brass Band Association Competition. In 1996, the Lexington Brass Band released a compact disc entitled Pastime with Good Company featuring highlights of the band’s live performances from 1993 through 1996. Gray was also principal guest conductor of the Solitaire Tuba Ensemble, a professional group based in Melbourne, Australia. With this ensemble, he presented concerts for the Australia Broadcasting Corporation and in Melbourne and Canberra.

Dr. Gray is noted for his frequent appearances in public schools throughout central Kentucky that bond musical performance with specific learning goals as specified in the “National Standards for Arts Education” as well as “Core Content for Arts and Humanities Assessment” that have resulted from the Kentucky Education Reform Act (K.E.R.A.). His program entitled Tubas Around the World-a musical journey of cultures and countries has been presented in many schools over the past several years.

A current project very near to completion is a solo compact disc entitled Tuba Europa - a musical journey through the continent recorded with German pianist Rudolf Ramming scheduled for release in fall 2004.