James Hunter Farley

Hunter Farley is currently a Doctoral student at Boston University as well as a Freelance Tubist and Teacher. He also is the director of athletic bands at Bentley University. Before moving to Boston, he received his Masters degree from Northwestern University in Tuba Performance and Undergraduate degree in Music Education at the University of Memphis. While at these institutions, he was an active member of the National Association for Music Education organization and the President of the International Tuba and Euphonium Association Chapter. Hunter has competed in many competitions throughout his years in school and has placed very well including being selected as a semi-finalist for the International Leonard Falcone Soloist competition and a finalist in the SERTEC Mock Orchestral Tuba Competition. During the spring of 2017, he also won the Principal Tuba Position of the American Wind Symphony Orchestra for their Summer Tour of the Great Lakes. Once returning from the tour, he had the privilege of being interviewed and featured in the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music magazine called The Blue Note.  In his first week in Evanston, he was approached by Mr. Jeff Hirsh of Evanston Now while he was practicing in the parking lot behind an apartment complex. Mr. Hirsh asked if he could take some pictures/videos and asked several questions and later that night he had written an article entitled "Music education in the age of COVID" which can be found at this link. https://evanstonnow.com/music-education-in-the-age-of-covid/

As well as being included in these articles, Hunter also has been published in the International Tuba and Euphonium Association Journal for his article series, Along the Audition Trail. These articles talk about recent winners of orchestras and military bands and audition preparation and how they managed practicing during the pandemic.

Hunter has gotten to perform with many Ensembles and Summer Festivals such as: The Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Du Bois Symphony Orchestra, Lexington Symphony Orchestra, Cape Ann Symphony, Phoenix Orchestra, Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra, Wisconsin Philharmonic Orchestra, Northwestern Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Northwestern Symphony Orchestra, Memphis Repertory Orchestra, Pokorny Seminar, American Wind Symphony Orchestra University of Memphis Bottom Line Tuba Ensemble, Tuba Quartets, University of Memphis Wind Ensemble and Orchestra, and the 855 Brass Quintet.

Hunter's teaching experience includes being the Director of Bands at Fayette Academy for 2 Years and 1 year at Bolton High School (student teaching). While he was the director of bands at Fayette Academy, where he taught 6-12 band and grew the program 8% in just one year. His band ranked 5th in the Tennessee Division 1 State Marching Championship which is the best the band has done in over 10 years. They also received all Superior Ratings at the Regional Concert Festival and earned an Invitation to the State Concert Festival which is the first time the band program has done this since 2012. The Fayette Academy Marching Band also received an Invitation to participate in the 2021 National Independence Day Parade in Washington D.C. This is the first time in the school's history to receive this honor.

While in school and teaching, private lessons were a very important part of Hunter's life. He taught many lessons and has had multiple students reach the All West and All State level bands which is the highest honor a high school band student can receive in the state of Tennessee. He has taught lessons on the following instruments: Trumpet, Horn, Trombone, Euphonium/Baritone, and Tuba. He, along with his private teaching, was also on band camp staff for many successful programs in the West TN area. Not only does he have experience working with high school and middle school students, but he also taught all non-major tuba and euphonium lessons while at school at Northwestern University. During this time, he taught both in person and virtual lessons so has an abundance of experience in virtual learning and his students showed tremendous growth during that time. Hunter’s principal teachers have been: Mike Roylance, Boston Symphony Orchestra; Gene Pokorny, Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Matthew Gaunt, Chicago Freelancer and Teacher; Kevin Sanders, currently the DIrector of the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music.