Christopher Olka

Principal Tuba of the Cincinnati Symphony since 2016 and former Principal Tuba of the Seattle Symphony and Opera from 1999-2016, Christopher Olka has had a wide and varied career in music. His orchestral experience includes Principal Tuba of Gerard Schwarz’s All-Star Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa’s Saito Kinen Festival Orchestra, Guest Principal Tuba with the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, and New York Philharmonic.

His career as an educator includes a wealth of experience, with multiple faculty appointments including Miami University, University of Washington, and University of Puget Sound. He is much sought after as guest teaching faculty, and has had teaching residencies at Cleveland Institute of Music, Carnegie Mellon, University of Miami’s Frost School of Music, and New World Symphony. Additionally, he’s held numerous music festival teaching positions around the world, such as China Low Brass Festival, Hamamatsu International Wind Instrument Academy, Eastman Tuba Academy, Cincinnati Symphony Brass Institute,  Lieksa Brass Week, LizBrass Festival, and Spanish Brass Alzira, among many others.

An active soloist and advocate of solo tuba literature, Chris has performed around the world in recital as well as solo performances with numerous orchestra, brass band, and wind ensembles. Notable solo appearances include Seattle Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Osakan Philharmonic Winds, and “Pershing’s Own” United States Army Orchestra.

In 2006 Chris premiered and recorded the Samuel Jones Concerto for Tuba and Orchestra with the Seattle Symphony for the NAXOS record label. The concerto, which was written and commissioned for him, received critical acclaim internationally for the premiere and subsequent recording.

Beginning in 1999 with his move to Seattle, Chris has become one of the most recorded tubists of his generation, having a multitude of commercial recordings to his credit. This includes numerous orchestral recordings with Seattle Symphony, Seattle Opera, Cincinnati Symphony, Cincinnati Pops, Seito Kinen Orchestra, and The All-Star Orchestra, along with many dozens of movie, television, and video game soundtracks. Notably, Seattle Symphony won multiple Grammy Awards, and The All-Star Orchestra received a stunning 11 Emmy Awards during his time in those ensembles.

Chris started a YouTube channel in 2011, dedicated to education, product reviews, and all things tuba-related. His channel has thousands of subscribers and hundreds of thousands of views from around the globe. His website, chrisolka.com also hosts these videos along with a growing catalog of transcriptions of music arranged for solo tuba.

Before becoming a full-time orchestral musician, Chris had a wealth of freelance and commercial experience from his time in New York while studying at Juilliard, along with being a staff musician for the Walt Disney World Theme Parks in Orlando, Florida from 1989 to 1997.