About CHI Brass
Great Sound Starts in the Head but is built in the Mouthpiece
CHI Brass was founded in the fall of 2023 with a simple purpose: to help tuba and euphonium players find mouthpieces that allow them to sound and play their best.
What began as a specialized mouthpiece company with one model has quickly grown into a recognized international brand, with CHI Brass mouthpieces now being played by musicians around the world—from dedicated students and amateurs to university professors and some of the world's leading professional tuba players.
We specialize exclusively in tuba and euphonium mouthpieces, with a growing collection of original CHI Brass designs alongside carefully selected mouthpieces from many of the world's leading manufacturers.
Our focus is not on offering everything. It is on offering great mouthpieces for serious musicians.
The CHI Brass Approach
Every player, instrument, and musical situation is different. The right mouthpiece should complement all three.
At CHI Brass, we look beyond measurements alone. Cup shape, rim contour, throat, backbore, shank, exterior mass, and the interaction between the mouthpiece and instrument can all affect response, resonance, articulation, projection, flexibility, and tonal color.
Our CHI Brass mouthpieces are developed with those relationships in mind.
Some models preserve important mouthpiece concepts associated with legendary performers and teachers. Others combine proven design elements with modern cups, backbores, shanks, and exterior profiles. Our Signature models are developed directly with outstanding professional musicians to meet their specific performance needs.
The goal is always the same: create a mouthpiece that works as a complete musical tool.
Inspired by a Great Brass Tradition
CHI Brass is deeply influenced by the great Chicago brass tradition and the musicians and teachers who helped shape modern low-brass playing.
Our designs reflect concepts associated with legendary performers and pedagogues including Arnold Jacobs and Floyd Cooley, while other models explore classic Helleberg and Geib-style designs and additional proven mouthpiece concepts.
We believe these traditions deserve to be preserved—but they can also be thoughtfully refined for today's players and instruments.
Developed With Great Players
Some of the world's finest tuba players now perform on CHI Brass mouthpieces.
Working with professional musicians gives us something that specifications alone cannot provide: feedback from players performing at the highest level.
CHI mouthpieces are being used in major orchestras, opera companies, chamber ensembles, universities, and professional performances around the world. These collaborations continue to influence existing models while also leading to entirely new designs.
For us, that is one of the most exciting parts of CHI Brass: the development process never really stops.
Mouthpieces for Different Players—and Different Tubas
A mouthpiece that performs beautifully on one instrument may not be the ideal choice for another.
That is why CHI Brass offers different cup concepts, rim contours, weights, and shank sizes for a wide variety of instruments—from F and EEb tubas to large CC and BBb orchestral tubas.
We want players to have meaningful choices rather than simply choosing between "small," "medium," and "large."
Whether you are looking for greater resonance, a broader orchestral sound, more tonal color, improved clarity, easier response, a different rim feel, or simply a better match for your instrument, we want to help you find the right combination.
More Than CHI Mouthpieces
While we are extremely proud of the CHI Brass line, we know that no single manufacturer can make the perfect mouthpiece for every musician.
That's why CHI Brass also offers selected mouthpieces from other respected manufacturers.
Our goal is to make CHI Brass a trusted destination where tuba and euphonium players can compare excellent mouthpiece options in one place and make an informed choice based on their instrument, playing style, and musical goals.
From Chicago to the World
Founded in the fall of 2023, CHI Brass has grown from a specialized mouthpiece company into an international brand in just a few short years.
Today, CHI Brass mouthpieces are played by musicians across the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and South America, from developing musicians and dedicated amateurs to university professors and internationally recognized professionals.
We are proud to see the CHI name appearing on stages, in studios, rehearsal rooms, universities, and concert halls around the world.
But regardless of where a player performs or what level they have reached, our philosophy remains the same:
The mouthpiece should help the musician make music—not get in the way of it.
Find Your Sound
Choosing a mouthpiece is personal. Measurements can point you in the right direction, but ultimately the question is how the mouthpiece works with you, your instrument, and the sound you hear in your head.
Explore the CHI Brass collection, compare designs and specifications, and discover the mouthpiece that helps you play with greater resonance, confidence, color, and freedom.
CHI Brass
Designed for musicians. Developed through experience. Built for sound.
About Ian Robinson
Musician. Educator. Brass Technician. Mouthpiece Designer. Founder of CHI Brass.
Ian Robinson is the founder of CHI Brass, bringing a lifetime of experience as a tuba player, brass educator, professional brass instrument technician, and student of some of the most influential brass musicians and teachers of the modern era to the development of tuba and euphonium mouthpieces.
Ian earned his degree in Music Education from VanderCook College of Music in Chicago, where his primary instrument was tuba. His musical education continued well beyond the classroom through extensive study of brass playing, teaching, pedagogy, instrument design, and acoustics.
Among the greatest influences on Ian's approach to brass playing was legendary Chicago Symphony Orchestra tubist and teacher Arnold Jacobs. Ian studied with Jacobs directly and through his other teachers that were long time Jacobs students. Performed for him in masterclasses, gaining firsthand exposure to the concepts of Song and Wind that transformed brass playing and teaching around the world.
Ian also studied with Roger Rocco, Gene Pokorny, and Floyd Cooley, and performed in masterclasses for renowned tuba pedagogue Daniel Perantoni. He performed and recorded with many orchestras, bands, brass bands and brass ensembles. These experiences helped shape his understanding of sound, breathing, equipment, and the individual needs of brass players.
From the Performing to the Repair Bench
An equally important part of Ian's background came from his years working professionally with brass instruments themselves.
From 1992 to 2001, Ian served as Lead Brass Technician at The Brass Bow, one of the Chicago area's respected professional instrument repair shops. During those nine years, he worked hands-on with brass instruments on a daily basis, developing an intimate understanding of how instruments are constructed, how their components interact, and how seemingly small mechanical and acoustical changes can affect response, resonance, intonation, and sound. His customers included Arnold Jacobs, Gene Pokorny, Floyd Cooley, Roger Rocco, Dan Perantoni, Fritz Kaenzig, JáTtik Clark, Scott Mendoker, Rex Martin and many more.
Working as a professional brass technician provided an education that could not be gained from playing alone. It allowed Ian to examine instruments from the inside out and to understand the relationship between the musician, the mouthpiece, and the instrument as a complete system.
That combination of perspectives—player, teacher, technician, and student of brass pedagogy—continues to influence the way Ian approaches every CHI Brass mouthpiece.
For more than 30 years, Ian has taught brass musicians while continuing to perform himself. That combination of playing, teaching, technical experience, and studying brass pedagogy became an important foundation for CHI Brass.
The Beginning of CHI Brass
Ian founded CHI Brass in the fall of 2023 with a simple goal: to create exceptional tuba and euphonium mouthpieces rooted in great historical designs while taking advantage of modern manufacturing, thoughtful modifications, and extensive real-world testing.
Many CHI Brass models have connections to mouthpieces and design concepts used by some of the great tuba players of the past and present. Rather than simply reproducing old designs, Ian works to understand why those mouthpieces worked and how their most successful characteristics can be incorporated into mouthpieces for today's players and instruments.
That philosophy can be seen throughout the CHI Brass line—from models influenced by the equipment and concepts of Arnold Jacobs, to designs developed with or inspired by musicians including Floyd Cooley and Sergio Carolino, as well as new models created to meet the needs of today's professional players.
Ian approaches mouthpiece development first and foremost as a musician, teacher, and technician. Rim contour, cup shape, throat, backbore, shank, mass, response, resonance, projection, and tonal color all matter—but ultimately, the mouthpiece has to help the musician produce the sound they hear in their head.
Built for Musicians
Today, CHI Brass mouthpieces are played by musicians ranging from developing players and dedicated amateurs to leading professional performers. CHI mouthpieces can be found in orchestras, universities, studios, and ensembles throughout the United States and around the world.
For Ian, that is the most rewarding part of CHI Brass: combining decades of playing, teaching, technical experience, listening, experimenting, and learning from extraordinary musicians to create equipment that helps other musicians play with greater freedom and produce the sound they want.
CHI Brass is built on a lifetime of brass playing, teaching, and hands-on experience—and a belief that the right mouthpiece should help the musician, not get in the way of the music.