Oscar Abella is a Spanish musician residing in France who combines a prolific pedagogical and performing career with musical composition and the practice of historical low brass instruments. He holds the Principal Tuba position with the "Euskadiko Orkestra - Basque National Orchestra" since 2007. He is Tuba & Euphonium Professor at the "Conservatoire Municipal de Musique et Danse de Dax" since 2026, Principal Guest Tuba Professor at the "Superior Conservatory of Music of the Balearic Islands" (Mallorca) since 2023 and Tuba Professor at the "Cuivres en Pays Basque" academy in Saint Jean de Luz (France) since 2018. Since 2014 he has been actively involved in promoting and playing tuba in the chamber ensemble "Euskadi Brass". He is a charter member of the "Spanish Tuba and Euphonium Association" (AETYB) and the "Spanish Tuba Quartet”. Since 2025 he leads the early music group “Voce Umana” and is Tuba Artist for the Zheng Ou (ZO) brand.
His musical training began at the Conservatory of Segovia (Spain) with Vicente López and one year later with Juanjo Raga, and at the Conservatory of Perpignan (France) with Master Mel Culbertson, who would become his greatest musical influence and mentor. Between 2001 and 2006 he moved to Lyon to study at the "Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et Danse" (CNSMD) with Mel Culbertson and Arnaud Boukhitine, obtaining the "Diplôme National d'Études Supérieures" with Honours. He has also attended workshops and master classes with professors Mel Culbertson, Harvey Phillips, Michel Godard, Roger Bobo, Jens Bjørn-Larsen, Rex Martin, Steven Mead, Øystein Baadsvik, Robert Tucci, Dan Perantoni, Warren Deck, Vicente López, Miguel Moreno, Miguel Navarro, and others. Oscar Abella is developing the Complete Method for Tuba by Mel Culbertson, based on Maestro’s original manuscripts, recordings, and personal notes, and since 2025 he has been working on a doctoral thesis on this topic at the University of Valladolid (Spain).
He has held the Tuba position in the "Opera of Saint-Etienne", the "Mediterranean Youth Orchestra" and the "Netherlands Youth Orchestra". In addition, he has collaborated with the "Bordeaux-Aquitaine National Orchestra", the "Lyon Opera", the "Bilbao Symphony Orchestra", the "Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana" (Les Arts), the "Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse" with Tugán Sójiev, the "Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra" with Valery Gergiev, the "Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia" with Gustavo Dudamel, etc.
He has given master classes and workshops at the "Cantabrian Youth Symphony Orchestra", the "Basque Youth Orchestra" (EGO) the "Euskadiko Ikasleen Orkestra" (EIO), the "Spanish Brass" Tuba Studio, the SBALZ Festival, the “Tuba Jaialdia” Festival, the "Tubaland" Festival (France), the "Jumilla Low Brass" Festival, the “M. C. mi Festival Brass & Percussion” in Pereira (Colombia), the "Hércules Brass Celanova" Festival, the "Cuivres en Pays Basque" Festival, the Professional Conservatories of Almoradí and Alicante and the Superior Conservatories of Alicante, Murcia, Mallorca and Barcelona (ESMUC and Liceu), among others. During the 2021/22 academic year, he held the professorship of Tuba, Orchestral Repertoire and Chamber Music at the "Conservatorio Superior de Música de Aragón" (CSMA).
In July 2001 he was laureated with the First Prize of the "Young Artist Tuba Competition" in Lahti (Finland), awarded by the "International Tuba and Euphonium Association" (ITEA). Some of his solo performances include: the Vaughan Williams Tuba Concerto with the "Basque National Orchestra" conducted by Christian Lindberg in March 2010; the world premiere of Bernard Cavanna's "Quelques Annonces" for tuba and choir at the Radio France Studios (Paris) with the "Musicatreize Ensemble"; recitals at the "Contemporary Music Festival of Segovia", the "TNBA" (Bordeaux, France), the "Auditorium Martín Codax" (Vigo, Spain), the "Teatro Santiago Londoño" and "Centro Cultural Lucy Tejada" (Pereira, Colombia), the "Miramón Auditorium" and the "Soreasu Auditorium" (Basque Country), the "International Tuba and Euphonium Conference" at the "Brucknerhaus Linz" (Austria, 2012) and at the "Palau de la Música" (Valencia, Spain, 2025), the "AETYB Conferences" in Barcelona (2014), Valencia (2016), Madrid (2018) and Málaga (2022), etc.
Oscar Abella has self-taught specialized in the study and interpretation of historical low brass instruments, a passion which has led him to become the first Spanish orchestral tuba player to perform pieces of the symphonic repertoire with the Serpent and the Ophicleide and to introduce them in his solo performances. In 2015 he collaborated in the recording of "The Virtuoso Ophicleide", published by the Ricercar label. He owns and makes use of an extensive collection of instruments from the 19th and 20th centuries, including a Forveille Serpent, a F. Pretty English keyed-Serpent, a traditionally manufactured WetterBerger Serpent, a Jeantet Basshorn with a dragon-shaped bell (ca.1817-24), various C and Bb Ophicleides from the makers A. Lecomte, Gautrot, Gautrot-Marquet, Courtois Frère and J. Thibouville-Lamy, and several period Tubas and Euphoniums made in Europe and North America.
As a composer, he specialized in film music scoring at the CNSMD of Lyon (France), working on a wide variety of styles, from symphonic to electronic. He also composes chamber music commissioned by different ensembles, highlighting "Forgotten Dream" for Tuba and Magnetic Band, "Mu-danzas" for brass quintet, the orchestral suite "Chloris and Zephyr", "H. C. Andersen's Shadow" for string quartet, "Cappriccio" for solo Euphonium, "In the Williams Mood" and "Variations on a Theme by G. Verdi" for Tuba quartet, etc.
