Wade Rackley grew up in San Antonio, Texas. He has been the tenured principal tubist with the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra and a member of the MSO Brass Quintet in Jackson since 1993. Mr. Rackley has been the adjunct tuba instructor at Millsaps College in Jackson since 1996 and is the newest member of the Capital Brass of Jackson. As a member of the Mississippi Symphony and the MSO Brass Quintet he participates in approximately 200 live performances annually throughout Mississippi and in Alabama.
Since coming to Mississippi Mr. Rackley has been an active adjudicator, clinician, recitalist and lecturer in Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. He has performed as guest soloist with the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra on three occasions. He has over a decade of experience as a brass instrument repair technician and also performs as an upright bassist in a jazz trio. He was a founding member of the Magnolia Brass, is an avid arranger of brass music and a music copyist. In 1998 Mr. Rackley was principal tubist with the Festival Orchestra and the AIMS Faculty Brass Quintet of the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria.
From 1988 through 1993 he was a member of the studio of Don Little as a performance major at the University of North Texas. During that time he was a very active freelancer and private teacher in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex. He was a member of the Metro Brass and held the tuba chair in the Irving Symphony. He also worked regularly with the orchestras of Garland, Las Colinas and Richardson, Texas and performed with the San Angelo Symphony. Mr. Rackley taught approximately 250 private tuba and euphonium students in six different towns while a resident of Denton, Texas. In 1990 he was selected to perform in an ensemble especially for Elizabeth II, Queen of England. As a member of the North Texas Symphony Mr. Rackley toured Spain and the Balearic Islands in 1991 and performed in Monterey, Mexico in 1992.
From 1985 through 1988 Mr. Rackley served as a tubist with the 26th US Army Band of New York City at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn. As a soldier in this unit he was a member of seven ensembles, the Assistant Music Librarian and worked in the Auditions and Recruiting Office. This band performed all over the Northeastern US, from Maine to far western Pennsylvania. He performed for nine foreign heads of state and for President Ronald Reagan and former Presidents Ford, Nixon and Carter. He participated in the 1986 Statue of Liberty Centennial and performed at game two of the 1986 World Series at Shae Stadium. While a resident of Brooklyn he was an active freelance musician in Manhattan, the outer boroughs, and in northern New Jersey. He received private instruction from Don Harry (Juilliard and the Buffalo Philharmonic) and Steven Johns (Mannes College and the NYC Ballet Orchestra).