YouTube goodness

[Chris Olka]

Hey! Thanks for posting this! I've never seen the interview I did. In fact, I've not gotten to hear most of the performances we recorded for the All Star Orchestra. No excuse really, I just generally don't have time to sit down and watch tv anymore.

The only irony here is that they hauled a 20-30k$ hi-def camera into my living room for the interview and the microphone sounds like it was made from a burned out dashboard tweeter from a '69 Impala. I've literally gotten better sound captures from the microphone on my iMac I used for a few of my "Drill of the Week" videos.

Oh well, thanks for finding this. How did you stumble across it, if you don't mind sharing?

Best regards,

[Mark]

Alessi, Yamamoto, Finlayson, Pollard and Olka. That is a serious low brass section.

[Rick F]

Great interview! Great link to the All-Star Orchestra too! I've only just started watching and listening to these.

Thanks for sharing.

[doublebuzzing]

Interesting what he says about that Bernstein Mahler 2 recording. I had a similar reaction when I heard the BSO/Ozawa Mahler 2 for the first time -- I was stunned (especially by the brass). Listened to it over and over after that.

[Paul Evans]

Wow, what a great interview! Chris did a great job of introducing the tuba family. It's a real shame that the recording quality on the playing samples is so bad, because this clip could be an all time great. As always, Chris, stellar job!

[JHardisk]

Absolutely fantastic interview, Chris!

Bravo!

[Steve Marcus]

Chris, you're absolutely right about the quality of your conversation vs. the miking of your playing.

In the interview, you said that you were forced into teaching yourself the tuba to be eligible to play in the band. When did you finally have your first formal tuba lessons, and with whom were they taken?

What traits did Joe Alessi cite when he insisted that YOU of all people would make it in the orchestral world? When and where did he first hear you play?

I posted the following on the YouTube site. I probably should just ask for the answer "from the horse's mouth:"

At 8:30 [in the YouTube video], Chris is playing along in Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 (New World) a part that Dvorak himself did not write (Dvorak wrote only 14 tuba notes in this symphony, and they appear in a different movement). Is this from the Robert Ryker tuba part revision? Was it Chris' or Gerard Schwarz' idea?

Might we tubists be able to use this example when presenting the suggestion to our conductors who are programming Dvorak 9?

Great job as always, Chris.