Jarrod Briley

Jarrod Briley is joining the Hartford Symphony Orchestra as Principal Tuba for his first season in 2022. A native of Beaufort, North Carolina, he began as a trumpet player at age 11 and switched to the tuba at age 15. Jarrod attended East Carolina University, earning a B.M. in Music Performance in 2018. He then attended Bard College for an Artist Diploma before joining The Orchestra Now, an orchestral training master’s program at Bard College, earning a M.M. in Critical, Curatorial, and Performance Studies. During his time in TON, Jarrod regularly performed in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and other prestigious venues. He has spent summers at the Eastern Music Festival and Bard Music Festival, and has also performed with groups such as the New Haven Symphony and Winston Salem Symphony.

Jarrod is an avid chamber musician and formed the Cobalt Brass Quintet which performed widely in the Mid-Hudson Valley region of New York. Jarrod is also actively involved in education and the marching arts, working with multiple drum and bugle corps. He has been an instructor for the Hawthorne Caballeros Drum Corps, winning a World Championship with them in 2020, and has also worked with the world class Blue Knights Drum Corps. He is currently an instructor for the Sacramento Mandarins.

Jarrod’s primary teachers include Tom McCaslin, Derek Fenstermacher, Jarrod Williams, Marcus Rojas, Dustin Chilson, and Darryl Falls. He currently resides in the Hudson Valley region of New York where he is a stage manager at the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. When not practicing or performing, he is usually hiking in the Catskills or spending time with his girlfriend Mackenzie and their dog, Poppy.