Twin Cities native Stefan Kac took up the euphonium in the 6th grade beginning band and never looked back. He switched to tuba in 9th grade and went on to earn a Bachelor of Music in Tuba performance from the University of Minnesota, where he studied with Ross Tolbert and David Werden. He also studied music at the University of Northern Colorado through the National Student Exchange program (tuba with Jason Byrnes and jazz with Dana Landry).

Stefan was a finalist in the Minnesota Orchestra's 2005 WAMSO Young Artists Competition, earning a concerto performance with the St. Paul Civic Symphony and a solo recital for the Schubert Club of St Paul. Also in 2005, he was accepted to the Betty Carter's Jazz Ahead residency program at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C., the only tubist thus far to achieve such an honor. The International Tuba Euphonium Association awarded him a 2006 Harvey Phillips Award for Composition Excellence for his composition "Lights of Loveland," as well as a 2008 Roger Bobo Award for Recording Excellence for the Pan-Metropolitan Trio's debut album "Isolation."

Locally, he has been heard with musicians and ensembles as diverse as Phil Hey, Mick Sterling, Milo Fine, The Mouldy Figs, and the CSBQ, as well as with a myriad of his own groups devoted primarily to performing his original compositions. He has several published compositions for brass, and was twice a winner in the Eric Stokes Song Contest sponsored by Twin Cities-based new music ensemble Zeitgeist. In addition to performing and composing, Stefan is the instructor of low brass at the West Bank School of Music in Minneapolis, and maintains a musico-philosophical blog as an outlet for observations and opinions about the music world which are probably best kept to himself.

Stefan serves as composer for the group, creating original music for us to play!

Contact Stefan