Anthony Plog on Music

Conversations with performers, composers, and entrepreneurs

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Richard Antoine White: RAW Tuba! The highly inspirational Professor of Tuba at The University of New Mexico, Principal Tubist of the New Mexico Philharmonic and Santa Fe Symphony, and author. Listen in to his incredible story!

Anthony Plog, host
Eddie Ludema, producer
Date posted: Feb 16, 2024

Richard Antoine White (Raw Tuba) is principal tubist with the New Mexico Philharmonic, principal tuba of the Santa Fe Symphony, and a full professor of tuba at the University of New Mexico. But for more reasons than those, he has been an inspiration for those of us familiar with his life and work. For the first four years of his life, he was homeless and living on the streets of Baltimore, yet today his life is one of success and giving. If you don't know of him, I think you will find his story incredibly inspirational.


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Part 1

In Part 1, I ask Richard to speak of his early life, first growing up on the streets of Baltimore, then being adopted by his grandparents at the age of four, learning the tuba and entering the Baltimore School for the Arts, and finally studying with David Federle at the Peabody Institute, followed by studies with Daniel Perantoni at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, where he was the first African American tubist to earn a doctorate.

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We follow Richard's journey as he won a spot with the New Mexico Symphony and then, when the orchestra failed, helped to found the New Mexico Philharmonic, of which he is still a member. I ask him about his amazing project, the RAW Tuba Ranch, which will be open for people from the age of 5 to 100. I also ask him about his participation in the Slavery Reenactment project, which changed his view on life. Throughout our conversation, Richard talks about his philosophy of life and his appreciation of hard work. "The best part about every day is that you're not done yet."



The podcast theme music, Four Sierra Scenes, written by Anthony Plog, is taken from Crystal Records S205, copyright ©1980 Crystal Records Inc., and is used by permission. Unauthorized duplication is not permitted.