Soloist · Pedagogue · Arranger · Community
David Werden
Longtime U.S. Coast Guard Band euphonium soloist, prolific author/arranger, and the founder of dwerden.com — for decades the euphonium world's online hub.
| Nationality | American |
|---|---|
| Plays | Adams · Adams Euphonium Artist (since 2012) |
David Werden (born 1950) is an American euphonium soloist, arranger, author, and — as much as anyone — the person who built the euphonium’s community on the internet. A graduate of the University of Iowa and the University of Connecticut, he was the solo euphoniumist of the United States Coast Guard Band for 26 years (1970–1996), performing across 42 states and abroad (Canada, England, Japan, the former Soviet Union) and under conductors including Zubin Mehta, Osmo Vänskä, Frederick Fennell, and Leonard Falcone. In 1980 he became the first American named international “Euphonium Player of the Year,” and in 2012 he received the International Tuba-Euphonium Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
His influence runs as deep through the page as through the horn. He founded Whaling Music Publishers (1977) and has published more than 100 arrangements and four books, including Scoring for Euphonium, The Blaikley Compensating System, and (with collaborators) the Euphonium Music Guide and Euphonium Excerpts from the Standard Band and Orchestral Library (co-authored with Barbara Payne and Brian Bowman). A web-development professional by second career, he launched dwerden.com in 1996 — home to the first searchable euphonium music guide on the web, a low-brass mouthpiece guide, a curated video library, and, from 1999, the Euphonium-Tuba Discussion Forum that became the central gathering place for players and teachers worldwide. He also wrote the widely reprinted explainer on the difference between the baritone and the euphonium.
Now based in Minnesota, Werden continues to teach, arrange, and contribute prolifically online. He has taught at the University of Connecticut and the University of Minnesota, performs with the tuba-euphonium ensemble Symphonia, and since 2012 has been an Adams Euphonium Artist, consulting on the company’s professional euphonium.