ITEC Lecture
Masterclass at Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Conservatory
Studio Teaching as a Career
Tag Team Teaching
Floyd in his studio in Berkeley
In 2001, after 31 years with the San Francisco Symphony Floyd turned his career exclusively to teaching. While he was with the San Francisco Symphony Floyd taught at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Stanford University. Currently, he gives master classes and has taught private lessons throughout New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, China and Europe.
Floyd is now residing in Portugal and is available for teaching throughout Europe. He flies over 100,00 miles per year and has amassed over two million miles on United Airlines!
“Floyd Cooley’s knowledge of the physiological and psychological aspects of brass playing make him a destination teacher. His is the next best thing to Arnold Jacobs.” – Dale Clevenger, former principal horn, Chicago Symphony Orchestra
“I remember that after one year of school, during summer break, I went back to listen to a recording I had made of myself preparing Wagner’s Prelude to Die Meistersinger for an audition, the year before I went to DePaul. My only means of recognizing the tuba player on the tape was the label with my name on it. After one year’s time studying with Floyd Cooley, my playing had changed so much from a fundamental side and musicianship side, that I didn’t recognize the player as myself.” – Mike Roylance, Tuba, Boston Symphony Orchestra
“I wanted to take a moment to thank you. When I took my first lesson with you last November, you were really insistent (and really the first person to tell me to) for me to fix my embouchure. It was a little hectic for me to work on something so drastic in the heat of the school year/grad school auditions, but in mid-April I finally had a window to make the change. It was kind of rough at the beginning, but about two weeks into the process I had a competitive range back with a drastically different/better sound. It’s been an amazing journey, and I’m definitely still on the road, but I feel that playing the tuba is a much easier process. I’m having more success achieving that concept of sound I have in my head, and I couldn’t have done that had I not changed. I wanted to thank you for showing me how to work on my embouchure in that one lesson. It might have been just one hour, but it has had a priceless impact on my playing and career.” – Frank John, Tuba Civic Orchestra of Chicago
with Kydei Nahcgawa, Tokyo Bach Band
Kuoshung
Biba, Sweden 2011
From his Depaul Studio (around 2016) Scott Frankcome, Floyd, Matt Lyon, Bin Gao, Warren Deck, Josh Wirt, William Russell