Dr. Brett Copeland is a tuba player, educator, composer, arranger, and music technologist that holds the position of Assistant Adjunct Professor of Tuba and Euphonium at the University of Northern Iowa where he teaches Applied Lessons for tuba and euphonium, directs the UNITUBA ensemble, co-teaches a Low Brass Techniques course for music education majors, teaches a Topics in Composition: Electronic Music course, and directs the Laptop Ensemble. He previously held the position of Adjunct Lecturer of Tuba and Euphonium at the University of Texas at Tyler while living in Dallas and teaching a private studio of low brass students. He's maintained an active performance career playing with groups such as: NewStream Brass, Flower City Brass, the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra, and Metropolitan Brass (Cedar Falls, IA). He has previously held the position of Principal Tuba with the Venice Symphony (FL), Ash Lawn Opera (VA), and the South Shore Symphony Orchestra (FL), and has played with Symphoria (Syracuse, NY), the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (Buffalo, NY), the Dallas Brass Band, the Brass Band of Central Florida, and Upstate Brass (Rochester, NY).
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In addition to teaching at Northern Iowa, Brett is on faculty at Luzerne Music Center (New York), the Five Seasons Chamber Music Festival (Cedar Rapids, IA), maintains a studio of virtual and in-person low brass students, and has a YouTube channel that hosts dozens of low brass play-along exercises with backing tracks meant to provide a resource to musicians in search of fundamental exercises.
Brett's artistic endeavors extend beyond performance, in 2026 NewStream Brass recorded an album of new compositions and arrangements at the University of Central Missouri which included his chart Radiance and his arrangement of Chicago by Sufjan Stevens. A new large ensemble composition silence smells like burnt coffee was premiered at the 2026 Five Seasons Chamber Music Festival in addition to a number of his arrangements for brass ensemble. A number of his arrangements and compositions are available on this website under the arrangements and compositions dropdown menus.
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He's co-authored The Creative Listener with other members of NewStream Brass (Dr. Dakota Corbliss, Dr. Derek Ganong, and Dr. Austin Seybert). The Creative Listener is an innovative method book aimed at providing a resource for music educators to teach audiation and improvisation concepts effectively.
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Brett earned a DMA in Tuba Performance and Literature with a Certificate in Arts Leadership from the Eastman School of Music ('20) where he was a Teaching Assistant for both the Tuba Studio and the Eastman Audio Research Studio. His primary teachers have been Don Harry, Jay Hunsberger, and Dr. Jeff Funderburk.
