Bevan Award for Outstanding Research

In 2010, the International Tuba Euphonium Association established the Clifford Bevan Award for Excellence in Research, a biennial program seeking to encourage the highest level of research in the area of low brass scholarship. The Bevan Award recognizes research on contemporary as well as historical topics, including acoustics, composition, theory, scoring, organology, performance practices, and pedagogy. 

Recipients: 

2025: No award given

2023: Beth Mitchell

2021: Dave Detwiler, "The Harvard Tuba" 

2019: Mark Jenkins, "Musicians of Unusual Merit: A Biographical History of The Euphoniumists of The President's Own United States Marine Band" 

2019: Bernhard Rainer, "Bruckner on Valve Trombone? - Low Brass Performance Practice in Anton Bruckner's Works" 

2016: David Earll, "C.G. Conn Tuba Designs from 1880-1940: An Investigation of Early Tuba Product Lines and Construction Techniques" 

2014: Gail Robertson, "Restoring the Euphonium's Legacy as Cello of the Wind Band" 

2014: Volny Hostiou, "Le serpent dit francais: aspects organologiques et sonores" 

2012: Robin Hayward, "The Microtonal Tuba"

2010: Eugenia Mitroulia, "The Saxtromba: Fact or Fiction?" 

About Clifford Bevan

Clifford Bevan (1934-2024) was born in Manchester and served an apprenticeship as a compositor before studying trombone and composition at the Royal Academy of Music. After freelancing he became chief arranger and pianist of "The Temperance Seven"; during their chart-topping period, then spent eight years as principal tuba of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Moving back to London, he played tuba and euphonium with all the leading symphony, opera and broadcasting orchestras, in the West End Theatre and sessions. Since the first edition of The Tuba Family, in 1978, he has contributed to numerous reference works and journals as well as writing more books, about musical instruments and theory. He was the recipient of the 2008 Christopher Monk Award and the 2010 ITEA Lifetime Achievement, among others. (Historic Brass Society)

Tribute to Clifford Bevan (by Ken Drobnak)

My association with Clifford Bevan began in 2016 through my service on the Committee to select the recipient of the ITEA Bevan Award for Excellence in Research. Craig Kridel, who initiated and funded the award, asked me to chair the committee after the 2016 cycle. When establishing the award, Craig designed the committee "with four adjudicators representing different aspects of musicology and organology." Thus, committee membership was predominantly leading musicologists and museum curators with a tuba artist. Dr. Bevan always served on the committee. 

Working with Cliff was quite a hoot. Since the committee was spread across many time zones, it was necessary to utilize various online platforms, and Cliff was somewhat technologically challenged. In the 2019 cycle, he sent me reviews via email with an attached Microsoft Word document. However, Cliff sent the document before saving the final version, and I had to keep pestering him for his final three reviews. I just could not convince him that he had not saved the document correctly before attaching. Cliff's reviews were always very thorough. 

Many enthusiasts and researchers contacted me hoping to receive help from Dr. Bevan. His biography is posted on my website (drobnakbrass.com) under the "ITEA Lifetime Achievement Recipients" section; apparently one of the few sources for online information about Dr. Bevan. I was honored to serve as Chair of the Bevan Award Committee for Excellence in Research from 2019 to 2024 and enjoyed our partnership, which I will greatly miss. 

Articles and pictures about the life and career of Dr. Bevan are in the Spring 2025 (vol. 52, no. 3) issue of the ITEA Journal.