At our core we are, quite literally, tubes, Fancy ones, sure, with ornamentation and parts for locomotion and sensory input and processing and more. But like all of our bilateral cousins across the animal kingdom, we are built around a tube designed for ingestion and expulsion. And like our closer vertebrate cousins, our tubes have extra bits that allow the rostral end to function in inhalation and exhalation.
Through the ingenuity of our processing parts, humans have learned over millennia to create other tubes with which to interface our own. Among these creations is the humble brass instrument, defined historically by material but more recently by mode of sound production: namely, the vibration of the lips at the rostral end of the human tube into the receiving end of another tube that in turn vibrates according to a harmonic series determined by its length. This coupling of tubes, the human and the not-specifically-brass, opens a veritable universe of sonic possibilities.
Some Kind of Tube 2 showcases musicians from across Southern California - Mattie Barbier, Mason Moy, Eric Starr, Jonathan Piper, and special guests - approaching brass instruments in adventurous and idiosyncratic ways through composed, improvised, and site-specific works.
Mattie Barbier:
Mattie Barbier is an LA based musician and sonic researcher focused on experimental intonation, latent acoustic worlds, and the physical processes of their instrument. Their playing has been described by the LA Times as being "of intense, brilliant, virtuosic growling that gave the striking impression that Barbier was dismantling the instrument while playing it," by the Wire as “exploring the nooks of instrumental tone far beyond the reach of most mortals,” and by the New Yorker as being a "diabolically inventive trombonist-composer."
Mattie engages in collaborative relationships with a broad spectrum of musicians including Weston Olencki, Ellen Arkbro, Clara Iannotta, Sarah Davachi, Michelle Lou, Wolfgang von Schweinitz, Jacob Kirkegaard, and Katherine Young. As an interpreter they have given premieres by and collaborated with a broad spectrum of sonic practitioners including George Lewis, Catherine Lamb, Liza Lim, Lester St. Louis, Kevin Drumm, Kaori Suzuki, Raven Chacon, Chaya Czernowin, Nate Wooley, and British pop maverick, Scott Walker. Mattie has appeared as an orchestral soloist with the Helsinki Philharmonic, SWR Symphonieorchester, and WildUp.
Mattie is a member of RAGE Thormbones, wildUp, echoi, Diapason, and is an active soloist and improviser on low brass instruments and bagpipes. They teach at CalArts.
Mattie has presented and created work with and for the Museum of Jurassic Technology, Getty Center and Villa, Monday Evening Concerts, Lampo, San Francisco Exploratorium, Indexical, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Bemis Center's LOW END, Roulette Intermedium, NyMusikk, RedCat, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Apparat, Factory Seconds Brass Trio, and Issue Project Room as well as in collaboration with holographer Tristan Duke. They have made a wide array festival appearances including: Borealis (NO), IMD Darmstadt (DE), Donaueschinger (DE), Musica Nova Helsinki (FI), Maerzmusik (DE), Bludenz Tage zeitgemäßer (AT), Spor (DK), Chicago’s Frequency Festival, Dartington International Summer School (UK), Kalv Festival (SE), JAMA (SK), Minu (DK), International Trombone Festival (CA), and the Ojai Music Festival. Mattie has held guest residencies at a broad spectrum of institutions, including Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Columbia, NYU, UCSD, and the University of Chicago. Various recording projects as a soloist and ensemble member have been released on Sofa Music, Dinzu Artifacts, Carrier, Tripticks, Populist, Mode, Hat Hut, Innova, Late Music, Faux Amis, Ideologic Organ, New Focus, Domino, New Amsterdam, and Kairos Records.
Mason Moy:
Mason Moy is a tubist, bass trombonist, and composer currently in Los Angeles, CA. He frequently makes music exploring extended just intonation, free improvisation, and the program Supercollider. He has commissioned solo tuba pieces by Wolfgang von Schweinitz and Jack Herscowitz. Mason has performed with Synchromy, the Angel City Jazz Festival, wildUp, and Monday Evening Concerts, as well as performed Ellen Arkbro’s Clouds for tuba trio at the Other Minds festival in San Francisco. He currently plays in the brass quartet Diapason, which focuses on performing long-form drone pieces by composer Sarah Davachi. His compositions have been performed across the United States by the James Madison University Wind Ensemble, Kevin Stees, Matt LeVeque, and the Los Angeles Brass Alliance.
Eric Starr:
Eric Starr maintains a multi-faceted musical career as a faculty member at SDSU, Trombonist for Westwind Brass, Board Member for San Diego New Music and for the Hausmann Quartet Foundation. For San Diego New Music, he is the Director of the Emerging Composers Project and was executive director from 2012 to 2022. At SDSU, Dr. Starr serves as Studio Artist Teacher, Lecturer, Brass Coordinator, Director of Brass Chamber Music, Co-director of the Experimental Music Ensemble, Program Advisor for the Music, Entrepreneurship and Business degree and Head Coach for SDSU Cycling. He was named “Most Influential Faculty” in 2025, 2023 and 2018. As an Arts entrepreneur, Eric is Creative Director of Sounds and Swellsfor Art of Elan, pairing surfing videos and classical music, and has developed Tasting Notes, a curated evening of music and wine.
Dubbed a “Trombone Champion” with “Stunning Style” (San Diego Union-Tribune), Eric has performedas a soloist and chamber musician throughout San Diego at major venues including Copley Symphony Hall and the San Diego Museum of Art. As an ensemble player, he has performed with the San Diego Symphony, Pacific Symphony, San Diego Opera, and Broadway shows including Frozen and Mary Poppins. A passionate advocate for contemporary music, Dr. Starr has premiered dozens of solo and chamber works for the trombone where he enjoys working with living composers and crafting seemingly strange notation and sounds into works of musical art. Notably, Dr. Starr was the first known person to perform the music of John Cage at Copley Symphony Hall in 2017 with the Solo for Sliding Trombone.
Dr. Starr earned a B.M. from the University of Southern California, an M.M. and A.D. from the Cleveland Institute of Music and a D.M.A. from Stony Brook University with additional studies at the Aspen Music Festival and Tanglewood Music Center. He lives in Ocean Beach, where he watches the waves daily, has continued interests in fine wines, cooking, summer time body surfing, and is a member of the San Diego Bicycle Club race team.
Jonathan Piper:
Dr. Jonathan Piper is a San Diego-based tubist and technologist. His work as a tubist centers on the exploration of sonic and gestural possibilities found at the limits of both the instrument and the performing body. Supported by extended techniques and live electronic processing, he combines elements of drone, doom, noise, free jazz, and contemporary idioms. He performs as a soloist and in a variety of duo projects, including with Michelle Lou (go by land), Ryan Ebaugh (1515), vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Meghann Welsh (Codex Confiteor), percussionist Eric Derr (Company Culture), drummer Nick Lesley, and more. He has recently appeared at Drone Not Drones, High Desert Soundings, and Project [BLANK]'s Working Title.
Jonathan has given talks on his work as a tubist and experimental musician at CalArts, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Stanford, UC Berkeley, and UC Irvine. As a scholar, he has researched and presented work on ontologies in digital media, online fandom practices, and embodiment in heavy metal music. Jonathan received degrees in musical performance at UC Los Angeles and music at UC San Diego, where he completed his dissertation *Locating Experiential Richness in Doom Metal*.