Heart and Seoul: Montana State alumnus pursues passion for tuba in U.S. Army

BOZEMAN - Crawling in the dark through 200 yards of sand, Montana State University alumnus Jake Kittleson and the rest of his platoon heard the hiss of flares overhead.

It was the recruits' final infiltration course, one of the last obstacles between Kittleson and his September 2024 graduation from U.S. Army basic combat training, a 10-week program preparing hundreds of new soldiers in South Carolina. With his knees and elbows bleeding, Kittleson climbed over the course's final wall, and a profound sense of pride washed over him.

He was one step closer to reaching South Korea, where he now serves as one of about 50 professional musicians in the Eighth Army Band outside Seoul. The 24-year-old tuba player from Great Falls, who graduated from MSU's School of Music in 2023, is simultaneously working toward his master's degree in music from Arizona State University.

"I'm grateful to be doing something I love professionally and to have this powerful feeling of duty and obligation," Kittleson said.

The Eighth Army Band is a subset of the U.S. Army Bands, the largest single employer of musicians in the nation, and is the only U.S. Army band stationed in Asia. It fosters diplomacy between South Korea and the U.S. with performances for civilians, soldiers and military ceremonies.

The band performs more than 300 times a year, with Kittleson often learning over 30 minutes of music in as little as one week. He said he likes the variety and chaos of switching between multiple ensembles, ranging from classical music to K-pop.

This spring, he performed for a festival in Jinhae acknowledging the impact of forest fires in the country. When the band's final notes of a song from the film "Spirited Away" rang out, the South Korean audience chanted for an encore, switching to English once they realized the musicians couldn't understand them.

"I always try to think from the audience's perspective in terms of what I can do for them to enjoy performances," Kittleson said. "That's a big part of why Korean audiences are so much fun for me: People act like you're playing a rock concert."

Performing for enthusiastic crowds often reminds Kittleson of his time in MSU's Spirit of the West Marching Band, where he immediately gained 190 new friends as a freshman, he said. He was a brass section captain for three of his four years in the band and conducted part checks, where individuals played a section of their performance piece to show they had memorized it.

Previous captains picked five-second sections and hustled each student along, but not Kittleson, said Nathan Stark, MSU's director of bands and music professor. He redefined the position by assigning more complex pieces and spending at least 10 minutes helping each student improve their sound.

Kittleson said he loves the dark and warm sound of the tuba that, after so many years of working with the instrument, feels like his own voice.

His musical style is one that welcomes fast notes and pushes the limits of his instrument, Stark said. In his junior year, for example, Kittleson performed a beatboxing solo on the sousaphone for Spirit of the West's rendition of "Brooklyn," by Youngblood Brass Band.

"He's like a mountain biker: Has anyone taken this trail? Has anyone gone over that rock? Is anybody taking this jump?" Stark said. "He says, 'I want to try it, and I want to be first.'"

Kittleson later joined at least six different bands, choirs and ensembles, not including groups outside school. He said the broad range of experience helped him place at national competitions and change musical styles in the Army.

He also founded MSU's Tuba Club, which was invited to perform at an international conference in Arizona in 2023. There, Kittleson met with a tuba professor from ASU, where he later pursued his master's degree.

It takes discipline to succeed as a music student. At MSU, students take one-on-one lessons with professors and practice for hours in Howard Hall's soundproofed cubicles. Through it all, Kittleson's dedication and ability to "harness sunshine" encouraged other students to become just as passionate about music, said Jeannie Little, associate professor of low brass.

"Success is the journey, not the destination,'" Little said. "It was wonderful for me to watch Jake go from this excitable 18-year-old to a leader who appreciated the discovery process of music but looked forward to the future."

After earning his bachelor's degree and attending ASU, Kittleson successfully auditioned for the U.S. Army Bands. In July 2024, he entered basic training, followed by 10 weeks of instruction from the U.S. Army School of Music.

This month, he'll have been in the Army for one year.

"These are the things you dream about when you say you want to be a professional musician," Kittleson said. "Our performances are actually impacting people and will continue to do so."