She is a tuba player and teacher born Carolyn Mae Jantsch into a family where her father is a medical doctor and her mother a vocal music teacher. She studied piano from the age of 6 years old, moving to the euphonium when she was nine at the Interlochen Arts Camp. As she got older she moved to the tuba and became a student at Interlochen Arts Academy until her graduation as her class salutatorian. She followed this by taking further studies at the University of Michigan.
While still in Michigan in 2006 she won the position of Principal Tuba with The Philadelphia Orchestra, making her the first female musician in that position in a major symphony orchestra, but continued her attendance at University so she could complete her Bachelor of Music degree. She has the orchestra’s Lyn and George M. Ross Chair.
Her work as a solo musician has seen has giving regular performances as a concerto soloist and recitalist. Ensembles she has performed with include The Columbus Symphony, the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Symphony in Russia and the United States Marine Band. The 2013 concerto Reflections on the Mississippi by Michael Daugherty were written for her, as was Tuba Concerto by Wynton Marsalis in 2021 and she has often commissioned other new works for tuba. During the COVID-19 pandemic she began the Rising Stars Podcast with other brass players.
Outside of her work with orchestras she is a member and chief arranger of the tuba cover band Tubular, which performs rock and pop music.
Recordings she has performed on include her own Cascades and Powerhouse and as a featured artist on Dreamachine-Trail of Tears-Reflections on the Mississippi. Other recordings include Peter Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 “Pathetique”/Dumka and Peter Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet/String Serenade/Francesca da Rimini/Brass Quintets Nos. 1 & 3 by The Philadelphia Orchestra, There’s No Going Back by Tubular and Reflections by the University of Michigan Symphonic Band.
In the field of musical education she is on the faculties of the Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University, the Yale University School of Music and the Philadelphia International Music Festival and is sought after to teach all around the world and give master classes nationally and internationally. She has participated in several brass festivals in North America and Europe as a featured artist and since 2017 she has been the host of the annual Tuba/Euphonium PlayIN. In 2018 she became a founder of the non profit Tubas for Good which provides the Philadelphia School District with instruments for their students and she also coaches in the school district through the Philadelphia Orchestra’s All City Fellowship program and Tubas for Good.
Sources:
- https://www.caroljantsch.com/bio.html
- https://www.philorch.org/your-philorch/meet-your-orchestra/musicians/carol-jantsch/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Jantsch
- https://www.interlochenpublicradio.org/classical-conversations/2021-11-03/the-dream-come-true-carol-jantsch-and-her-life-with-the-tuba
- https://www.yamaha.com/artists/caroljantsch.html
- https://www.wrti.org/wrti-spotlight/2021-08-03/the-philadelphians-in-concert-on-wrti-tubist-carol-jantsch-in-the-spotlight
- https://www.naxos.com/person/Carol_Jantsch/304993.htm
- https://www.allmusic.com/artist/carol-jantsch-mn0003291732/credits
- https://www.discogs.com/fr/artist/4625550-Carol-Jantsch?type=Credits&filter_anv=0
- https://philadelphiamusicfestival.org/our-faculty/brass/carol-jantsch-tubists/
- https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2021/03/11/artist-profile-carol-jantsch-first-woman-to-hold-a-principal-tuba-chair-in-a-major-us-orchestra/
- https://events.umich.edu/event/55661