The Triangle Tuba Quartet

Our Bio's

At the ripe young age of thirteen Irv Eisen decided to give up playing the trumpet in his junior high school band in anticipation of getting braces on his teeth. But Mr. Blackwell, the band director, had other ideas. Rather than lose a student, he convinced Irv to switch to the tuba, which would not hurt so bad with the braces, and he stayed after school to teach Irv how to play it. Mr. Blackwell's efforts paid off as Irv received a degree in music education, played for a while in a club on Bourbon St. and freelanced in St. Louis. Now, working as a computer systems manager for Duke University, Irv plays for fun with the Durham Community Concert Band, the TTQ and the Decatur Street Beat dixieland band.

John Jones has been playing euphonium since the 9th grade, when he was switched from tuba to double belled euphonium in high school. He is a Duke Univ grad who studied with Paul Bryan, the director of the band program during the period John was at Duke. After some years off the horn he came back to the instrument for a few years in the late 1980s, finally returning to full time play in 2003. John recently retired as Director of Campus Merchandising at UNC Chapel Hill where he was responsible for the campus bookstores. Musically, he plays with the North Carolina Wind Orchestra, the Triangle Wind Ensemble and the Triangle Brass Band, and has performed four solo recitals since 2006.

As a child, Paul Gramann played the piano, clarinet (briefly), and trombone before switching to euphonium in high school and eventually making the Virginia all state band. Paul played the tuba for a season with the UVa pep band and then focused musically on guitar, playing in many Christian fellowship groups.  In 1998, after almost 18 years of withdrawal, Paul kicked off his mid-life crisis by buying a euphonium. He currently enjoys tooting his horn regularly with the TTQ, the Durham Community Concert Band, the "Red Kettle Band" during the Christmas season and other occasional ensembles. Paul is married with two children and pays the bills with his day job as an engineer at IBM.

Jack Denniston started playing tuba in 8th grade because there were some cute girls in the band and there wasn’t any room in the horn section. He studied tuba performance at the University of Indiana and picked up the trombone and euphonium later. He currently plays regularly in the Triangle Brass Band  and an 11-piece brass choir called Herding Cats (the group takes its name from the difficulty of scheduling rehearsals for 11 active musicians), and performs occasionally with Brassissimo (a brass quintet), various Dixieland bands, and a variety of other bands, orchestras and small groups. Jack’s day job is with ICF International, assigned to the U.S. Children’s Bureau, supporting research and demonstration projects that test innovative approaches to preventing and treating child abuse and neglect in order to develop and disseminate knowledge about what works. He lives in Chapel Hill with his wife Lorry.

Joe Lowman returned to playing the tuba at age 50 after a 34 year lay off. Now he can't get enough and has played in several Triangle brass groups, including the Village Band and the Chapel Hill Brass Ensemble. Currently he plays in the TTQ and the Triangle Wind Ensemble. While spending the summers in Boone, he plays in the Watauga Community Band and the High Country Brass plus One. When not making music, Joe is Professor of Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Bob Hale received a scholarship to the Juilliard School of Music, and graduated with a B.S. degree in trombone performance. After freelancing in New York, playing with the Goldman Band and traveling with the Longines Symphonette for two years, he decided that that life was inimical with raising a family.  He then got a "day job" with IBM which lasted for 38 years. However, he retained a toe-hold in music, forming the Westchester Brass Quintet in Westchester County just north of New York City, and playing an average of two professional engagements per month with them for a dozen years.  He's now settled down to playing the trombone or euphonium with only three groups regularly, but plays from time to time with other groups when persuaded to (it doesn't take much persuading).