| HOWARD J. BUSS PAPERS (RG5200), 1968-1996 |
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH |
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Subject Files |
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Sound Recordings |
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Sheet Music |
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Musician, composer, and educator Howard J. Buss has lived in Lakeland for more than twenty years. He is an accomplished trombonist who has played with orchestras and ensembles throughout the country; an internationally recognized and honored composer who works have been published and performed throughout the world; and a dedicated and skilled teacher in the classroom and studio.
Buss's professional music career dates to 1967 when, at the age of 17, he joined recording artists, The Tijuana Brats as a trombonist. Over the next few years the group enjoyed moderate success and performed on such national television programs as the Tonight Show and the Mike Douglas Show, among others. The members of the group eventually tired of the travel and the "business" side of show business and agreed to disband in 1971.
At that point, Buss decided that a career change was in order for him and went on to graduate school. He earned two Master of Music degrees, in brass performance and music composition and theory from Michigan State University and a doctorate in music composition and brass from the University of Illinois. He met and married his wife Judy, a clarinetist and ethnomusicologist in Illinois in 1975. The two moved to Lakeland in 1978 and established a teaching studio. Buss also taught music composition and music appreciation at Florida Southern College.
It was in Lakeland that Buss's reputation as a composer began to blossom. In 1982. the administration of President Ronald Reagan included one of his compositions, "Fanfares," in the Presidential Collection. His work was recognized on several occasions by the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP); he was named Composer of the Year by the Florida State Music Teacher Association; and his work has been commissioned by a number orchestras throughout the country. He has published more than 70 pieces.
Buss continues to live, teach, and compose in Lakeland. He has formed his own publishing company, Brixton Publishing, to provide a venue for composers whose work is infrequently published or promoted by the larger commercial publishing houses.
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