Dr. Evan Zegiel (he/him) is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and low brass educator based in Michigan. He is currently touring North America as a bassist and tubist, performing for the production of Pretty Woman on bass guitar, concertizing at schools and colleges as a tuba soloist, and giving masterclasses and clinics.

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Dr. Zegiel holds BM and MM degrees in Performance and Chamber Music from the University of Michigan and a DMA in Performance from Michigan State University, where he studied with Fritz Kaenzig and Philip Sinder, respectively. He studied composition with Dr. David Biedenbender at MSU, after being a self-taught composer since his teenage years. He has held teaching positions at Purdue University Fort Wayne (IN) and throughout the Detroit metro area and the Greater Lansing communities in Michigan.

 

Dr. Zegiel’s musical background is rooted in orchestral performance. He has performed with such ensembles as the Detroit and Baltimore Symphony Orchestras, and he is a former New World Symphony Tuba Fellow. He is also an award-winning tuba soloist. Some of his wins include the Student and Artist Divisions of the Falcone Festival competitions, the Jan and Beattie Wood Concerto Competition at Brevard Music Center, and the US Air Force Band’s Colonel George S. Howard Young Artist Competition, among others.

 

As a composer, Dr. Zegiel draws upon his background in rock, punk, and heavy metal, and he often writes about the challenges presented by climate change. His piece for unaccompanied tuba, Climate Strike, won the Tuba category of the 2020 Falcone Festival's Call for Scores. Recently, his new pieces featuring solo classical instruments with heavy metal accompaniments have made waves in the classical community. The first of these projects, his Heavy Metal Concerto, was a finalist for the Harvey Phillips Award for Excellence in Composition at the 2023 International Tuba-Euphonium Conference.

When he isn't playing tuba, composing, or teaching, Dr. Zegiel enjoys watching videos about Star Wars lore and astrophysics on YouTube, drinking coffee/tea while contemplating the scope of the universe, and hiking the numerous woodland trails of Michigan.