Craig Knox is Principal Tuba of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and a founding member of the Center City Brass Quintet. With these ensembles and others, he has performed for audiences across the U.S., Europe, and Asia, and been heard on Grammy-Award winning recordings and concert broadcasts around the world. As a soloist he played the world-premiere performances of concertos by Jennifer Higdon and Andre Previn, has appeared with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, U.S. Army Band (Pershing's Own), and Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, and released an album of music for tuba and piano titled A Road Less Traveled. Mr. Knox holds teaching positions at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Music in Pittsburgh, and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Many of his former students hold major professional performance and teaching positions around the country. Sharing the beauty of music with others is a lifelong pursuit and passion of Mr. Knox, which is realized by his performance and teaching activities.

“Mr. Knox played with assurance and complete command of his instrument, providing a convincing case forthe solo potential of the tuba.” --Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Craig Knox has been Principal Tuba of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra since 2005, where he holds the Dr. Mary Ann Craig endowed chair. He previously held positions of Acting Principal Tuba of the San Francisco Symphony, and Principal Tuba of the Sacramento Symphony and the New World Symphony (Miami). He has also performed as a guest artist with many other major orchestras, including those of Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, Minnesota, and Seattle, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande of Geneva, Switzerland. For twenty-five years, he was co-principal tuba of the Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson, Wyoming.

Mr. Knox has been an active chamber musician for many years, having co-founded the Center City Brass Quintet, which has performed in recital throughout the United States andJapan, and been heard numerous times on Performance Today. Its six recordings on the Chandos and Octavia labels have met with critical acclaim, the first being described by American Record Guide as “one of the all-time great brass quintet recordings.” In addition,he played for several seasons with the Chicago Chamber Musicians Brass Quintet — with which he recorded for the Naxos label — and has toured with the Empire Brass. In 2008, the Albany label released a CD recording featuring Knox and his colleagues in the Pittsburgh Symphony low-brass section titled From the Back Row, which was called “hauntingly beautiful”and “hair-raising” by the American Record Guide.

Prior to his faculty positions at Carnegie Mellon University and the Curtis Institute of Music, he previously served on the faculty at Kent State University and State UniversityHayward, as well as the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he was director of the Brass Chamber Music program. He has presented master classes and recitals around the world,including at the Music Masters Course in Kazusa (Japan), the International Brass Symposium (Italy), Tainan National University (Taiwan), the Bruckner University of Music (Linz, Austria), Stuttgart Conservatory (Germany), the National Orchestral Institute (University of Maryland), the National Youth Orchestra of the U.S.A. (Carnegie Hall) and the New World Symphony, as well as the Eastman School, University of Michigan, Indiana University, Yale University and the Glenn Gould School in Toronto, among many others.

A native of Storrs, Connecticut, Knox began formal musical studies on the classical guitar at age six, and took up the baritone horn in the fifth grade. At age 11, while attending a summer music camp, he was so enamored of the student orchestra that he switched to tuba so he could pursue a life in music as an orchestral performer. His first teachers included Gary Ofenloch, Samuel Pilafian and Chester Schmitz, and he attended the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Paul Krzywicki of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and earned a Bachelor of Music degree.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said, “Mr. Knox played with assurance and complete command of his instrument, providing a convincing case for the solo potential of the tuba."

Photo By Cristina Cutts