Jarrett McCourt

Named one of Canada’s “hottest 30 classical musicians under 30”, Jarrett McCourt currently performs with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. Prior to this, Jarrett was the Tuba Fellow of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida. Jarrett’s playing has been called “magnificent” by the Palm Beach Daily News and “warm, romantic and seamless” by the South Florida Classical Review.

In the faculty

  • MPS instructor, tuba

Education

  • BMus with a minor in Ethics, University of Western Ontario
  • MMus (Tuba performance), University of Michigan
  • MMus (Chamber music), University of Michigan

Performance highlights

McCourt has performed with a number of different high-level ensembles, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, l’Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, the Flint Symphony Orchestra, the Ann Arbor Symphony, and the Windsor Symphony Orchestra.

McCourt has won several international competitions, including the New World Symphony Concerto Competition, the Marta Hidy Competition for Brass in Toronto, and concerto competitions across Canada and the U.S. Most notably, he won the top prize in the brass category of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal’s prestigious Standard Life Competition in 2014, becoming the first tubist to do so in the competition’s 75-year history. Additionally, McCourt was a finalist in the XVI Tchaikovsky Competition (the inaugural year for brass participants) in St. Petersburg, Russia, and the only North American tubist to participate in the live rounds.

His principal teachers have been Brent Adams, Fritz Kaenzig, Craig Knox, Warren Deck and Gene Pokorny.

Ongoing research and creative works

McCourt is a Miraphone Artist and performs on the 1281 Petrushka F Tuba.