Jack Adler-McKean

Jack Adler-McKean is a performer-researcher promoting the tuba family through collaborations with ensembles, composers, and academic institutions. Following undergraduate degrees from the University of Manchester and Royal Northern College of Music, he studied with Professor Jens Bjørn-Larsen at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien in Hannover, graduating from the soloist class in 2018. He was awarded his PhD in 2023 with a thesis presenting historical-, acoustic-, and practice-based approaches to developing performer- and composer-instrument relationships in both historical and contemporary contexts. Since February 2024 he has been working as a post-doctorate researcher at the Academy of Music in Malmö.

His first book The Playing Techniques of the Tuba was published by Bärenreiter in 2020, while other writings have been featured in the Historic Brass Society Journal and Oxford Handbook of Wind Instruments, as well as the journals TEMPO and Music and Letters. Other research dissemination includes presentations at conferences in Vienna, Paris, Cambridge, and Harvard University on topics ranging from electro-acoustic instrument augmentation to nineteenth-century operatic performance practice. He also curates the Contemporary Music for Tuba collection for Edition Gravis, and his own compositions and arrangements are published by Potenza Music. He is very grateful to have had his work supported by grants from the Berliner Senat, Countess of Munster Trust, Musikfonds, Deutsche Akademische Austauchdienst, Arts and Humanities Research Council of Great Britain, Deutscher Musikrat, and the Leverhulme Trust amongst others.

Recent artistic projects include ensemble performances with Ensemble Modern and Klangforum Wien, music theatre productions on stage at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Philharmonie Luxembourg, chamber music performances at the Pierre Boulez Saal and Elbphilharmonie, collaborations on new solo works with Sarah Nemstov and George Lewis, premières at the BBC Proms and Darmstädter Ferienkurse, and recitals in Rome and Buenos Aires. Orchestral projects range from long-term contracts with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Aalborg Symphony Orchestra to work with chamber ensembles including Kammerakademie Potsdam and Spira Mirabilis using the predecessors to the tuba, the serpent and ophicleide.

Jack Adler-McKean has worked as a conductor with the Luzerner Theater, Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte di Montepulciano, the National Concert Band Festival and Chimera Opera, as well as being co-founder and musical director of the baroque ensemble Le Maschere Galanti. Alongside being a member of the pedagogical faculty for the Lucerne Festival Academy (as well as co-curating their Forward Festival), he has also directed workshops and masterclasses for both tubists and composers at institutions around the world, including Columbia University (New York), CNSMDP (Paris), Bilkent University (Ankara), and the University of Oxford.