Daniel Perantoni

Biography

Tuba and euphonium player Daniel Perantoni has been notable for the wide range of his activities, encompassing both classical and jazz performance as well as instrument design, consulting, and a pedagogical career that has landed students in major teaching and performing organizations. A 1963 graduate of the University of Rochester, Perantoni went on for a master’s from the Catholic University of America, finishing in 1968. He has long been associated with the University of Indiana’s Jacobs School of Music, where he succeeded the legendary Harvey Phillips (who, in the words of New Yorker critic Whitney Balliett, was the main figure in elevating the tuba “from the laughingstock of musical instruments to one of its kings”). Following that feat, Perantoni chose to become active on a variety of fronts. His appearances as a soloist have occurred in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall and the Spoleto Festival, and have taken him to the Montreux Brass Congress in Switzerland and to Japan. Perantoni co-founded Summit Brass, “the first and only truly American brass ensemble to represent the United States”; this American all-star brass group has made numerous recordings. He has also performed with the St. Louis Brass Quintet and the brass ensemble Symphonia. On the jazz side, Perantoni was recruited by Phillips into the Matteson-Phillips Tubajazz Consort, a group consisting of three tubas, three euphoniums (euphonia?), and a rhythm section. Perantoni and Robert Tucci have designed their own line of low brass instruments, named Perantucci, and he has served as a consultant and liaison to the educational world for the Custom Music firm. Perantoni is the holder of a lifetime achievement award from T.U.B.A., the Tubists International Brotherhood Association (now the International Tuba and Euphonium Association). To his students at Indiana he is known as Mr. P.