Hello, all.
We just finished TUBACHRISTMAS in Columbus and it was a real ride. We had to switch venues this year due to financial concerns, so we played in a local downtown mall. Since the mall didn't have a large enough space to accommodate 400+ players, we decided to break into three mini-concerts. We rehearsed the less experienced members for 45 minutes before the first concert and then did small rehearsals for the veterans. Gary Tirey, the coordinator, and I were cautiously skeptical about the event, but it was a real gas. We had the best sounding groups ever, and we saved the last concert for the "heavy hitters" so to speak. Unfortunately, Harvey Phillips was unable to join us, but Norlan Bewley sang "Santa Wants a Tuba for Christmas" and did a great job. If you can get him to your event (remember, he wrote half the book!) he can really sing! Kent Eshelman played the tuba solo and was really great. This format gave us the opportunity to work closely with the young folks, the future of TUBACHRISTMAS, and gave us a real chance to polish the product. The audiences were great, we didn't sacrifice any quality, and we all had great fun.
I wish you all the most Joyous Christmas, and a Happy and Prosperous New Year!!!
TUBACHRISTMAS report
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TonyZ
- pro musician
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- Location: Columbus, Ohio
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TUBACHRISTMAS report
Tony Z.
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Tom Eshelman
- bugler
- Posts: 86
- Joined: Tue Mar 23, 2004 4:29 pm
- Location: Westerville, OH
Like Tony, I was pleasantly surprised by the City Center Mall Venue and the three session format. It was a very enjoyable TubaChristmas for the participants thanks in part to Tony's energetic co-leadership. The players are close to the director and had no problems seeing or hearing. The mall and its decorations were festive. Parking was much more reasonable and convenient that at past venues. Now if they could just turn off the muzak (mostly a problem during the rehearsals). Merry TubaChristmas!
Tom Eshelman
Tom Eshelman
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Steve Marcus
- pro musician
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Chicago TubaChristmas
Since you may need to subscribe to read this front-page Chicago Tribune article, simply linking to a URL may not work. So:
Loving the Low Notes
Tuba players, normally relegated to the back row, are front, center and all over at the annual tuba gatherings
By Jon Yates
Tribune staff reporter
Published December 23, 2004
In warm-ups, the toots and blats sounded more like a zoo full of large, pained mammals than a finely tuned orchestra.
But by the time they hit the stage Wednesday, the 328-member all-tuba band was in fine form, filling the Palmer House Hilton's chandeliered main ballroom with an earth-shaking, wall-rattling version of the normally sedate "O Come All Ye Faithful."
"For a lot of us, we deal with people thinking it's just an oom-pah instrument," said Chris Chenault, 36, a tuba player from Des Plaines, who took part in the massive annual gathering called TUBACHRISTMAS. "It allows us to show the public that it's more than just that."
Call it tuba pride, a generally obscure phenomenon visible in all its big brass glory Wednesday at the Palmer House, where high school marching band members settled in beside professional musicians, and elderly players mingled with 10-year-old beginners.
For many, the annual concerts--held in Chicago and 200 other cities worldwide--are a chance to break away from the tubist's traditional role as steady bass accompanist and whale away on the melodies, albeit a few octaves lower than they're normally played.
It was also a chance to meet up with old friends, dress with pride in tuba-themed stocking caps and sweaters, and gobble up compact discs with titles like "Tubajazz Superhorns," and "Tubajazz Superhorns Live!!!"
"It's a big brotherhood," said Allen Carter, 34, of Valparaiso, Ind.*, toting around a beaten-up Miraphone tuba he had borrowed from a local high school.
Carter, who recently took up the tuba again after an 18-year layoff, said he first started playing in high school. At the time, he didn't have enough money to buy an instrument, so he took whatever the school had on hand. The only instrument left was a tuba.
While some others at the TUBACHRISTMAS played $14,000 instruments, Carter's horn was riddled with holes, dented and badly scratched. The buzz in the mouthpiece, he said, was "unnerving," and he still hadn't located the source of the rattling inside. But there he was, blowing away with all his might.
"Students have beaten it up beyond recognition," Carter said. "But I can't stop playing it because it's a raggedy horn."
Such is the attitude among tubists each holiday season, part of a tradition born three decades ago in New York. The first TUBACHRISTMAS was held in the Rockefeller Center ice rink, put together by renowned tubist Harvey Phillips to celebrate the life of his teacher, the late William Bell.
Chicago joined in 1976 and has held a tuba concert every year since. Phillips, who still coordinates the shows, runs a not-for-profit foundation out of Bloomington, Ind., that oversees more than 200 such concerts each year worldwide.
The concerts begin the first weekend after Thanksgiving and run until Christmas. This year, there will be tuba concerts in Switzerland and Iraq, Austria and Japan. In the U.S., TUBACHRISTMAS already has been observed in Denver and Los Angeles, Freeport, Maine, and Wasilla, Alaska.
The annual Chicago concert, Phillips said, is among the largest. More than 500 people took in the show Wednesday.
"It's exquisite," said Janet Thau, 66, of Northbrook, who was watching for the third year in a row. "I never dreamt it would be this beautiful."
Not that every note was perfect. Nora Heggen, 17, a senior at Larkin High School in Elgin, has participated in the concert each of the last four years. Part of the allure, she said, is playing alongside veterans, and learning from them as she goes.
The tuba generally has a special place in the back of the band, and experimentation is rare. At TUBACHRISTMAS, Heggen can let it rip.
"It's okay if you mess up," she said, "because there's so many of us."
While Heggen was a relative newcomer, others, like Rich Mateyko, 61 of Streamwood, are old hats. Mateyko, a baggage screener at O'Hare, has participated in 54 TUBACHRISTMAS concerts over the years.
"There's nothing else in the world like this," Mateyko said, holding his 35-pound Conn Recording Bass. Mateyko tried on Sunday to take part in another TUBACHRISTMAS concert in Battle Creek, Mich., but was turned back by the snow.
"It takes a person who loves the low notes," he said, trying to explain the allure. "You just have to love this sound and you have to love being able to feel the notes."
By the end of the show, Mateyko and his fellow tubists had blown through roughly a dozen holiday standards, giving deep, powerful versions of "Deck the Halls," "Silent Night," and "Jingle Bells."
The final song, "Joy to the World," nearly shook the hotel's foundation. Which was just the way the more than 300 tubists envisioned it.
"Tubas and baritones are intense," said Chenault, 36, of Des Plaines, who performed in his first TUBACHRISTMAS in Dallas 20 years ago.
It takes, he acknowledged, a special breed.
"The fact that you're willingly carrying around 30 to 40 pounds of metal and not complaining, it says a lot."
Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune
*Could this be the very same Allen Carter of TubeNet BBS fame who is studying tuba at Temple University?
Loving the Low Notes
Tuba players, normally relegated to the back row, are front, center and all over at the annual tuba gatherings
By Jon Yates
Tribune staff reporter
Published December 23, 2004
In warm-ups, the toots and blats sounded more like a zoo full of large, pained mammals than a finely tuned orchestra.
But by the time they hit the stage Wednesday, the 328-member all-tuba band was in fine form, filling the Palmer House Hilton's chandeliered main ballroom with an earth-shaking, wall-rattling version of the normally sedate "O Come All Ye Faithful."
"For a lot of us, we deal with people thinking it's just an oom-pah instrument," said Chris Chenault, 36, a tuba player from Des Plaines, who took part in the massive annual gathering called TUBACHRISTMAS. "It allows us to show the public that it's more than just that."
Call it tuba pride, a generally obscure phenomenon visible in all its big brass glory Wednesday at the Palmer House, where high school marching band members settled in beside professional musicians, and elderly players mingled with 10-year-old beginners.
For many, the annual concerts--held in Chicago and 200 other cities worldwide--are a chance to break away from the tubist's traditional role as steady bass accompanist and whale away on the melodies, albeit a few octaves lower than they're normally played.
It was also a chance to meet up with old friends, dress with pride in tuba-themed stocking caps and sweaters, and gobble up compact discs with titles like "Tubajazz Superhorns," and "Tubajazz Superhorns Live!!!"
"It's a big brotherhood," said Allen Carter, 34, of Valparaiso, Ind.*, toting around a beaten-up Miraphone tuba he had borrowed from a local high school.
Carter, who recently took up the tuba again after an 18-year layoff, said he first started playing in high school. At the time, he didn't have enough money to buy an instrument, so he took whatever the school had on hand. The only instrument left was a tuba.
While some others at the TUBACHRISTMAS played $14,000 instruments, Carter's horn was riddled with holes, dented and badly scratched. The buzz in the mouthpiece, he said, was "unnerving," and he still hadn't located the source of the rattling inside. But there he was, blowing away with all his might.
"Students have beaten it up beyond recognition," Carter said. "But I can't stop playing it because it's a raggedy horn."
Such is the attitude among tubists each holiday season, part of a tradition born three decades ago in New York. The first TUBACHRISTMAS was held in the Rockefeller Center ice rink, put together by renowned tubist Harvey Phillips to celebrate the life of his teacher, the late William Bell.
Chicago joined in 1976 and has held a tuba concert every year since. Phillips, who still coordinates the shows, runs a not-for-profit foundation out of Bloomington, Ind., that oversees more than 200 such concerts each year worldwide.
The concerts begin the first weekend after Thanksgiving and run until Christmas. This year, there will be tuba concerts in Switzerland and Iraq, Austria and Japan. In the U.S., TUBACHRISTMAS already has been observed in Denver and Los Angeles, Freeport, Maine, and Wasilla, Alaska.
The annual Chicago concert, Phillips said, is among the largest. More than 500 people took in the show Wednesday.
"It's exquisite," said Janet Thau, 66, of Northbrook, who was watching for the third year in a row. "I never dreamt it would be this beautiful."
Not that every note was perfect. Nora Heggen, 17, a senior at Larkin High School in Elgin, has participated in the concert each of the last four years. Part of the allure, she said, is playing alongside veterans, and learning from them as she goes.
The tuba generally has a special place in the back of the band, and experimentation is rare. At TUBACHRISTMAS, Heggen can let it rip.
"It's okay if you mess up," she said, "because there's so many of us."
While Heggen was a relative newcomer, others, like Rich Mateyko, 61 of Streamwood, are old hats. Mateyko, a baggage screener at O'Hare, has participated in 54 TUBACHRISTMAS concerts over the years.
"There's nothing else in the world like this," Mateyko said, holding his 35-pound Conn Recording Bass. Mateyko tried on Sunday to take part in another TUBACHRISTMAS concert in Battle Creek, Mich., but was turned back by the snow.
"It takes a person who loves the low notes," he said, trying to explain the allure. "You just have to love this sound and you have to love being able to feel the notes."
By the end of the show, Mateyko and his fellow tubists had blown through roughly a dozen holiday standards, giving deep, powerful versions of "Deck the Halls," "Silent Night," and "Jingle Bells."
The final song, "Joy to the World," nearly shook the hotel's foundation. Which was just the way the more than 300 tubists envisioned it.
"Tubas and baritones are intense," said Chenault, 36, of Des Plaines, who performed in his first TUBACHRISTMAS in Dallas 20 years ago.
It takes, he acknowledged, a special breed.
"The fact that you're willingly carrying around 30 to 40 pounds of metal and not complaining, it says a lot."
Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune
*Could this be the very same Allen Carter of TubeNet BBS fame who is studying tuba at Temple University?
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TubaRay
- 6 valves
- Posts: 4109
- Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2004 4:24 pm
- Location: San Antonio, Texas
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TUBACHRISTMAS report
Thanks for transcribing the newspaper article, Steve. We get similar coverage here in San Antonio for our TubaMeister Christmas concerts. I have not yet attended 54 TubaChristmas performances, but counting our annual TubaMEISTER Christmas concerts, I have done 30.
Ray Grim
The TubaMeisters
San Antonio, Tx.
The TubaMeisters
San Antonio, Tx.