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The Plain Dealer ran a nice story on Sugiyama and his career the other day. He's a fine player who has been a part of some of the world's great ensembles.

I don't care how loud he plays but
"He loves Western food, especially Italian cuisine and buffalo wings, and all nationalities of beer."
is good enough for my book.

I would like to begin by saying that I always think it sad when an affiliation between a tuba player and an orchestra doesn't work out, as was the case with Mr. Sugiyama and Vienna.

With that said, I am very glad to have Mr. Sugiyama in Cleveland. If you haven't heard this guy, you are really missing out. The Cleveland Orchestra has a DVD out of Bruckner 5 on tour (in Bruckner's church) in 2006, and the brass playing is absolutely inhuman.

In addition to being an incredible tuba player and incredible musician, Mr. Sugiyama is a wonderful and warm person who is a joy to be around. I have taken several lessons with Mr. Sugiyama and each one has left me crosseyed at his incredible musicianship. Finally, Mr. Sugiyama retains a warm relationship with Mr. Ron Bishop, the previous holder of the tuba chair in the Cleveland Orchestra.

In short, we are all lucky to have a player like Mr. Sugiyama to represent and further the art on our favorite instrument. If you haven't gotten a chance to hear this guy play, LOOK HIM UP!

Yasu is a wonderful musician and a great guy. First time I met him, his first order of business was "we should do lunch" (motioning a beer mug with his hand). You gotta love that.

He is a remarkable player and a friendly guy. Also, he's sensative to appropriate instrument for each piece, which is great (the bruckner recording was made on a Fafner, if I recall).

Bishop's are huge shoe's to fill. His will be too!

J.c.S.

His sweet and "simple" little tune in that video is utterly endearing...also his very "simple" explanation of the tuba's job in the orchestra...

I feel I'm a little late to the game in learning more about this guy. I knew he had won the gig a few years back, but living so far from Cleveland, I also knew seeing him live wouldn't be a possibility. Besides the DVD mentioned, are there any NEW CD recordings of Cleveland w/ him? I've checked iTunes and there just seems to be a load of re-releases. I checked the orchestra store, but there's no mention of rec. date on any of the (16 pages of) cd's.

Anybody know?

I just heard him (and first learned about him) at the National Brass Ensemble concert. He played great, with an impressive presence of sound.

I heard Sugiyama at the National Brass Ensemble concert last year at California State University-Sonoma. Make no mistake about it----the guy can crank it out with the best of them. He's a very fine musician who plays tastefully at all dynamic levels.

Ace