The College of

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This fall, Dr. Ryan Matejek will join the Greenwood School of Music as the Visiting Assistant Professor of Tuba & Euphonium. Prior to this role, he served as a Visiting Lecturer of Music at Arkansas Tech University, where he taught applied tuba lessons, low brass methods, and general music classes. He also directed the university’s tuba/euphonium ensemble, BassTech. As an alumnus of ATU, he took great pride in working with students at his alma mater.

 

In 2015, Ryan graduated from ATU and began working as a music teacher for the Western Yell County School District, where he taught beginning, junior high, and senior high band, as well as choir and elementary music. In 2017, he accepted a position as a graduate teaching assistant for the concert and athletic bands at the University of Missouri. A year later, his duties expanded to performing with the faculty brass quintet, Mizzou Brass. While in Columbia, he also performed with the Missouri Symphony and the Columbia Civic Orchestra. He graduated in 2020 with a Master’s in Tuba Performance and a Graduate Certificate in Music Entrepreneurship.

 

Afterwards, Ryan was a graduate teaching assistant in the Tuba/Euphonium Studio at Arizona State University. His duties included teaching applied tuba and euphonium lessons, low brass methods, and co-teaching music entrepreneurship classes. Active as a performer, he played with groups including the Salt River Brass Band, the Phoenix Brass Collective, and Valley Brass. He was also a substitute tubist for the Phoenix Symphony.

 

In December 2023, Ryan graduated from ASU with a Doctorate of Musical Arts. His research project, titled “A Performer’s Analysis and Transcribed Arrangements for Tuba and Piano of Works by Black Composers Before 1950,” produced three new arrangements for tuba and piano. He premiered these pieces at his final degree recital in spring 2023 and again that summer at the International Tuba and Euphonium Conference. 

 

Ryan now resides in central Oklahoma. He also serves as a Tuba Mentor through the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas Mentorship Program. In 2024 he co-founded and became president of the Arkansas Highlands Brass Band, where he also performs as Solo Eb Bass.