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My first tuba professor, Mario Camomilli, passed away on Saturday, February 17, 2007. He was like many hundreds of former military bandsman, who after careers in other fields, came back to music and started playing and teaching after retirement.

Mario was in WPA bands during the depression and also served in the West Point band. Many of his colleagues recommended that he pursue a professional music career, but Mario did not think he was good enough to play at that level. He became an aerospace engineer and worked in the Brevard county area for many years.

Upon retirement, he picked up the tuba again and started playing in the Brevard Community College Band and the Melbourne Municipal Band. He was then asked to be the professor of tuba at BCC and was a charter member of the Community Band of Brevard. He will be remembered by many as an outstanding performer, teacher and friend.

His memorial service is tomorrow at 10 am. It will be held at the Divine Mercy Catholic Church in Merrit Island, Florida. I hope many of his former colleagues and friends can be there. Unfortunately, I cannot attend due to concert commitments here in Jacksonville.

Mario was a special mentor and I have many fond memories of his teaching, family, performances, and social times together. We often forget how important someone is to your musical and personal life until after they are gone. As I remember Mario tomorrow, remember someone who was important to your life and remember them fondly.

Please feel free to share any memories of Mario on this thread.

Thanks,

Paul Weikle

Mario's son, Randy, was friend of mine from the years just after I graduated from college to this day. It was only after his retirement that Randy's father announced to me that he had once been a tuba player and, now that he has the time, wanted to get back into playing. To help him with this we would spend quite a few evenings playing duets and talking about our lives as tuba players. I had little to relate to him (High School, College, etc..) Mario, however, had lived a very rich life as a tuba player before I was even the proverbial twinkle in my father's eye. Depression era WPA bands and spending WWII in the West Point band. He would comment on being humbled by the fact that he was in a band filled with players from major symphony orchestras. I would remind him that he had won the audition just like everyone else. He played a beautiful old Martin Bell-Front BBb. As he regained his chops I began to realize that he was not just anyone with a dream to play the tuba during his "golden years." He could really play and, on top of that, he was one hell of a human being. I saw Mario last fall. It was at a gathering at Randy's house to celibrate his daughter's graduation from college. We again talked about WPA bands, West Point, and, now that I'm more experienced, my years with TUSAB. Mario's will be greatly missed.