TUBA

Zach Bridges

Zach Bridges joined The United States Army Band “Pershing’s Own,” Ceremonial Band in August, 2016. His primary duties in the Ceremonial Band include supporting funerals at Arlington National Cemetery as well as wreath laying ceremonies by heads of state and other foreign dignitaries at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, monthly retirement parades, special reviews, and arrival and departure honors for foreign dignitaries at the White House and Pentagon.

Zach also currently serves as the Principal Tuba of the Maryland Symphony, a position he has held since 2019. He is a founding member of the Apex Brass, an ensemble comprised of premiere military band members, and has performed with several organizations in the region, including the Baltimore Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Washington Concert Opera. 

Zach received his bachelor’s degree from Baylor University where he studied with Dr. Kent Eshelman. He received his master’s degree from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where he studied with David Kirk, Principal Tuba of the Houston Symphony.

Prior to joining Army Band, Zach performed with the Houston Ballet, East Texas Symphony and the Waco Symphony, as well as the festival orchestras of Lake George, Brevard Music Center, National Music Festival, Texas Music Festival, and the Sewanee Music Festival. 

In addition, Zach has performed in several solo competitions including the Artist Tuba solo competition at the 2014 International Tuba Euphonium Conference in Bloomington, Indiana, where he was a semi-finalist.  He was also named winner of the 2011 Young Artist Tuba division at the International Leonard Falcone solo competition.

Scott Sutherland

A life-long resident of Southern California, Scott Sutherland has been hailed as “the second craziest tuba player I know” by famed American composer, Joan Tower. He is a member of the Redlands Symphony, Riverside Philharmonic and has been spotted in the back row of the Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Colorado Springs Philharmonic, and San Diego Symphony. Likely due to clerical errors, Scott has performed at the front of the stage as a soloist with the San Diego and Idyllwild Arts Symphony Orchestras, as well as the Riverside and Burbank Philharmonics. He has also recorded for film, television and video game soundtracks, including the major motion pictures Pearl Harbor and Batman vs. Superman (which are the only accomplishments notable to his younger private students). For 11 years, Scott was a founding member, tubist and pianist of the international touring ensemble, Presidio Brass, for which he continues to work with as a consultant and music arranger. During his time with the quintet, he performed in over 40 states, Canada and China. Scott can often be found behind his MacBook Pro, slaving away for hours on end adapting music. His arrangements have been performed by ensembles throughout the world, including the Principal Brass of the New York Philharmonic, famed tubist and conductor Roger Bobo, as well as chamber groups from the West Point Band and the “President’s Own” Marine Band. Scott’s “Fantasy on Porgy and Bess” for trumpet and orchestra was commissioned by soloist Barry Perkins and has been performed with the Pacific Symphony (California) and the Aguascalientes Symphony (Mexico). He began a popular YouTube Channel in 2016 which includes multitrack videos of film, television and video game music, featuring Scott playing euphonium, tuba, cimbasso, piano and percussion. In its first year, the channel was viewed over 500,000 times. Beyond his performance career, Scott is a passionate and dedicated teacher. He is currently on the faculty at the University of Redlands, Idyllwild Arts Summer Program and Gene Pokorny Low Brass Seminar. Despite all of this, Scott’s foremost identity, besides being an avid beer and whiskey snob, comes as a husband and father to his beautiful family and he is grateful to come home to Carlsbad, CA where it never fails to be 70 degrees and sunny all year round. Scott Sutherland is proud to be an Artist and Clinician for the Eastman Music Company.