Sam Pilafian

[bort]

The clips of him with Mr. Rogers are great, too!

[MaryAnn]

I met Sam at a small horn workshop in northern AZ while he was still at ASU. I had taken my F tuba with me and saw him do a double take seeing it on my back. He did his breathing workshop, worked with all of us in groups, let me play both his CC and F tubas, and was incredibly encouraging and helpful, beyond anything I've ever experienced. For me, it's not the loss of a tuba player but the loss of the person that is hitting me hard, even though I only had that one weekend encounter.

[Lamminator]

Very sad news. RIP.

[tofu]

.

[Leland]

Start listening at about 20 minutes:
http://www.andrewhitz.com/blog/tbj100" target="_blank" target="_blank

And at about 58:30,
Andrew: "The problem is, we have too many stories. We don't know, I mean, it's like a bajillion different directions that we can go for an entire episode."
Sam: "I'll be back!"
Andrew: "Thank goodness"
Sam: "It's nice to be able to say that to you!"

[doublebuzzing]

He was one of the giants of the tuba world. He was more than a tuba player though. I can't believe both Rolf and Sam have died now in the past couple years.

This is extraordinary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSd11-CZinA" target="_blank

[Bill Troiano]

Sam is possibly one of the greatest tubist that ever lived. What he did and accomplished playing tuba in any and every style, with amazing tone and musicality, will be hard for anyone to repeat. And, Sam was an amazing person. He stayed at my Lake Grove, LI home twice when he was a guest artist for the SCMEA Tuba Day event that I organized and ran for 32 years. So, we got to hang a little too, especially at the infamous post Tuba Day parties that we always had at my house. Actually, the first time, he didn't spend the night. I saw that he wasn't drinking. I offered him a beer and he said he was good. Then, at around 2:30 am (because sometimes these parties went into the early morning hours), he said to me, basically, thanks for everything. I have to go now. This is when he lived in Boston. I said, where? Now? All of my Tuba Day guest artists stayed at my house, rather than put them up in a hotel. I could write a book just about that. Anyway, Sam said he had to get back to Boston to take his son to karate in the morning. So, I walked him to his car where we chatted more, and then he left. Actually, that was the 2nd time he came down. The first time he flew into LGA and I went to pick him up. Sam is a legend. I've seen him play many times with Empire Brass, Boston Brass, with Travelin'Light, as a recitalist, with Pat Sheridan, and at various conferences. His playing always amazed everyone. And, let's not forget when he appeared on various TV shows, including, Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood and the Gong Show. Although he didn't consider himself an orchestral tuba player, he made it to the final 3 in the 1978 NY Phil. audition that Warren Deck won. He later told me that if he had won, he probably wouldn't have accepted the position. Sitting in an orchestra wasn't appealing to him. And, that was because he was busy and played tuba in every other scene possible. For the past several days, my Facebook Feed was totally consumed with praise, prayers, and well wishes for Sam. Many told stories. He said in podcasts back in Oct. that he had colon cancer, but was able to beat it. He was to undergo some special new procedure to eradicate it. I don't know if he did go through with that, but through a couple of other close tuba friends of mine who were more in the know, as of this past Thursday, I knew Sam was fighting for his life. HS kids know of him through the Breathing Gym that he created, along with Pat Sheridan. Most HS marching bands use many of those exercises from the Breathing Gym. Anyway, I don't know how to create paragraphs on this FB post. We tuba players are just lucky that Sam chose the tuba as his main instrument. Sam is legend and we will never forget him.