About Me
John Van Houten Jr.
born December 19, 1957, is an American orchestral tuba player. He is most notable for playing in various film soundtracks. John holds a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree in tuba performance from the University of Southern California, where he studied with Tommy Johnson. John is a freelance tubist in the Los Angeles area. Some of the ensembles he performed with include the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Opera, Long Beach Opera, Joffrey Ballet, New American Orchestra, Long Beach Municipal Band, and New West Symphony. His performing experience also includes phonograph recordings with such diverse artists as Sir Paul McCarthy, Henry Mancini, John Williams, Burt Bacharach, Elvis Costello, Carly Simon, Michael Giacchino, Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, Christopher Young, and Alice Cooper, in addition to television shows (such as Alias, The Simpsons, Futurama, American Dad!, Family Guy and King of the Hill), BatmanAnimated TV series, records, jingles (Commercials) and a wide variety of motion pictures, such as Mission: Impossible, Crimson Tide, Dracula, Species, Virtuosity, Mars Attacks!, Murder at 1600, The Thin Red Line, Men in Black, X-Men, Dude, Where’s My Car?, Pearl Harbor, Swordfish, Legally Blonde, Collateral Damage, Planet of the Apes, The Core, Daredevil, Piglet’s Big Movie, Hulk, Pirates of the Caribbean, Paycheck, Hollywood Homicide, The Chronicles of Riddick, The Day After Tomorrow, Spider-Man 2 and 3, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Up, and Star Trek, to name a few. Van Houten has also served as Music Supervisor, Music Coordinator, Music Contractor/Orchestra Manager, on numerous films, commercials, video games, and live orchestral productions. He also has taught at several universities and colleges in the Southern California area, including UCLA, California State University, Long Beach, Concordia University Irvine, Azusa Pacific University, Cerritos College, Biola University, Pasadena City College, Irvine Valley College, and California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.
Occupation:
Musician/Contractor/Instructor
First Horn:
Miraphone 184CC5U
Instruments Frequently Used:
CC Tuba: Vintage Miraphone 188-5v Sun Valley era
CC Tuba: Kanstul Orchestral Grand
BBb Kanstul Orchestral Grand
F Tuba: Kanstul Orchestral F, Miraphone, Firebird Model
CC Cimbasso: Rudy Meinl
Contrabass Trombone: Miraphone modified by Justin Jerome with a D-valve making it a double-trigger Bb independent
Bass Trombone: Dave Taylor Model
Memberships:
AFM Local 47
RMLA
ITEA
Chamber Music of America
SCSBOA
Personal Motto:
“When you get knocked down, always get back up and never back down.”