Ever since he started playing the tuba, Joey Caponera has made it his goal to affect his audience’s impression of the instrument. From virtuosic passages to delicate ballads to the driving bass line in a march, he adds musical intensity and direction to every note. It is this direction and intensity that helped him perform Edward Gregson’s Tuba Concerto as the winner of the 2019 Slippery Rock University’s concerto competition and won him second place in the SCRTEC Mock Orchestra Competition in 2024.
Joey has always been an active performer with large ensembles and chamber groups alike. He is a cofounder of The Brass Forge, a professional brass quintet, and is a permanent member of the Louisiana Brass Quintet, the faculty brass quintet at ULL. Large groups like collegiate wind ensembles, orchestras, community bands, and even Burke’s Bavarian Brass, a German polka band, have enjoyed him holding down the bass line. In 2022, he auditioned to be principal tuba in the WASBE Youth Wind Orchestra on their concert celebrating Czech composers in Prague, and later that year, while attending the University of Southern Mississippi, Joey won a one-year position playing principal tuba with the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, where he still occasionally plays.
Joey uses this musical intensity as a basis for other musical endeavors including composing and teaching. His composition Spaghetti Western for tuba quartet was premiered by the University of Southern Mississippi’s Tuba/Euphonium Choir in the Fall of 2022. Joey currently teaches tuba and euphonium at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where he manages a studio of 11 college students and a couple highs school students. He also teaches the tuba/euphonium ensemble, chamber groups, and occasionally low brass methods.
Joey Caponera received his Bachelor of Music Education and Music Performance from Slippery Rock University, and his master’s degree from the University of Southern Mississippi. His notable teachers include Phil VanOuse, principal tuba of the Pittsburgh Opera Orchestra, and Dr. Richard Perry, principal tuba of the Meridian Symphony Orchestra. After taking a few years off of school to strengthen his teaching and playing, Joey hopes to start a Doctor of Musical Arts degree to further his education.
The Poetic Tuba
This recital will feature music based on poetry and arranged for tuba and piano. Selections from Charles Vernon's arrangement of Sergei Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet Suite will be bookended by conference premieres of Joey Caponera's arrangements of Clara Schumann's Die Lorelei and Franz Schubert's The Erlkonig
