Biographical sketch:
David LeClair is second principal tubist and
tutti-contrabassist in Sinfonieorchester Basel. Having
studied with Harvey Phillips at Indiana University at
Bloomington, Indiana, he received a Bachelor of Music with
High Distinction in 1976 and emigrated to Munich, Germany
in 1977. In April 1977 he became principal solo-tuba at the
Bavarian State Theater at Gaertnerplatz and played there
from May of 1977 until August of 1982. During his entire
5-year stay in Munich he studied with Robert Tucci.
After winning the
audition for the Swiss Radio-Sinfonieorchester in Basel in
1982, he played there until 1997, when in the course of
reorganization, the Radio Sinfonie merged with the Basel
Sinfonieorchester to form the Sinfonieorchester Basel. In
addition to his contractual duties in these orchestras, he
has played regularly as a substitute in the Munich
Philharmonic, the Symphony-Orchester of the Bavarian Radio,
the Bavarian State Opera, the Symphony-Orchester of the
Süddeutsche Rundfunk in Stuttgart, the Frankfurt and
Saarbrücken Operas, the Orchestra della RAI in Turin,
Italy, the Bern Symphony Orchestra, the Tonhalle in Zurich
and in the Zurich Opera.
Since 1983 David LeClair has been teaching tuba and
euphonium at the Conservatory of the
Musik-Akademie in Basel. From 1985 until 1992, he
was teacher of brass pedagogy and didactics at the
Conservatory. In addition to the students at the
professional level, he also coaches chamber music ensembles
at the Academy and teaches a small class of amateur pupils.
Composing has always been one of David LeClair's passions
and a few of his compositions can be heard on the following
CDs: "Swingin' Low" and "The Dragon's Dance", both
available at Marcophon of Editions Marc Reift, and on his
solo CD, produced by "Grammont Portrait".
During the past few years David LeClair has been working
closely with Rudolf Meinl in the further development of his
very fine instruments. Together with Rainer Egger he has
created a series of excellent mouthpieces for tuba, based
on the principals of response, intonation and flow.