David E. Mercedes joined the faculty at Western Michigan University and Irving S. Gilmore School of Music as Lecturer of Tuba and Euphonium in 2023 where he teaches applied lessons and performs with the Western Brass Quintet. Prior to his appointment at WMU, he held teaching positions at Texas Southern University and Oklahoma State University. Notable groups that David has performed with include The Orchestra San Antonio, Lone Star Wind Orchestra, Texas Chamber Symphony, Magnolia City Brass Band, and Houston Brass Quintet. David is a member of the Backburner Tuba and Euphonium Collective and fLOW Quartet. As an active International Tuba and Euphonium Association member, David has performed, educated and adjudicated at several regional and international conferences.
A proponent of contemporary music and living composers, David has commissioned works for tuba, including Drown (2015) by Matthew Pellegrino (revised in 2016), Shadow of Sky (2019) by Wenxin Li, Lull (2020) by Jean-François Charles, and Quintet for Tuba and String Quartet (2021) by Ethan Cypress, Rumination and Solitude (2022) by Daniel Adams, to name a few. He is also a part of consortiums including Un Dia en La Vida (2019) by Jose Flores, Introdução e Dança for Tuba and Piano (2022) by Fernando Deddos and Nuzlocke for Solo Tuba and Fixed Media (2024) by Mitchell T. Gilly. In 2019, he performed as a guest artist at the Midwest Composers Symposium that was hosted at Indiana University and was recently invited to perform at the 2025 CMS Great Lakes Chapter Conference at Roosevelt University in Chicago.
David E. Mercedes is a Denis Wick artist.
