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We are planning a family trip to France and Germany this summer. Has anyone gone to the Miraphone plant? I sent my husband to see how tubas where made in Hamburg and he had a nice visit to the Gronitz office. I know that Meinl Weston will give tours, but my son has been playing Miraphones for quite a while, so I know he'd love to see their plant. Any tuba specific things we should do in Munich or Paris?

Regards,
Michelle
the tuba dude mom

I have no clue, but Miraphone is VERY responsive to emails and they are quite friendly. Send them a note, and they'll let you know.

http://miraphone.de/en/company/contact.html

Sounds like a cool trip, but I'm not sure there's much tuba stuff to be found in France. However, I'm sure you will find plenty of other things to occupy your time there.

Yup - they respond very quickly! The answer is they are 1.5 hours away from Munich and they give tours on Monday through Thursday around 10 AM since they finish work by lunchtime. My son is very excited about going there since we believe the tuba he presently plays was a German made tuba. Ah the things you do for your tuba loving kids

It should be an interesting adventure!

so that answer is, yes Miraphone does give tours!

regards,

michelle

We are going in the Summer - late June or early July. Haven't even booked the tickets yet!

My opinion -- skip France and go to Austria for the second half of your trip. Especially at that time of year, it's absolutely beautiful.

(I know, France is known to be "okay" too... )

Can't skip France. The boy is studying French and we are going to Disneyland Paris. Big Disney fans. We are partially going to Germany because I studied German in High School and we are going back to some of the places I went to on my trip there in high school

Disneyland Paris is really cool! You'll have a good time there. Just be warned: the Disney staff will not be as friendly in France as they are in the States.

Tokyo Disney is another (very fun) story altogether.

Yeah we know that. Do you know if there are any tuba player in the Disneyland Paris Band? We go around to all the Disney parks and watch the tuba players perform. We enjoyed the Dixeland band in Anaheim. Our favorite is the nefarious Banjo Brothers and Bob. Bob, real name Hank, is an amazing tuba player!

We know that Disney isn't as friendly, or clean - but we want to visit it at least once.

Oh yeah - and we have been to Tokyo Disney - it is amazing! Yes - we love Disney parks.

I think there are better things to do in Paris than tuba events but, if you are still determined, here's the website of a fine French Dixie/Jazz tuba player, Fred Dupin: http://www.freddupinjazz.com/. I think he also has a F/B page which he might keep more current with dates and gigs.

Here's a video of him with one of the groups he plays in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XZQoyrMkk4. As you will hear, he's a terrific player.

There are many things we want to do in Paris. I'm just covering all the bases. Since we have the tuba dude with us, we need to keep him happy.

You also might want to watch this video before you go:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9kmgUhFN84" target="_blank

Hi,
While you are in Munich, you might look up Tom Walsh, the tuba player in the Munich Philharmonic. He's a Philadelphia guy and a marvelous tuba player. I don't know what his schedule is but perhaps a lesson or two could be pre-arranged. Here's a link to his page on the orchestra's website. He's also the tuba player in a group called Blechschaden.
link to orchestra page :
https://www.mphil.de/en/persons/thomas-walsh.html" target="_blank" target="_blank

Link to him playing "Carioca" with Blechschaden:
http://youtu.be/0RLvvzJLHSU?list=PLDPAV ... O0P3JIqHBW" target="_blank" target="_blank
Gute Reise!
Pete

oldpatterns wrote:There are many things we want to do in Paris. I'm just covering all the bases. Since we have the tuba dude with us, we need to keep him happy.

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While in France, at the prospect of skipping Disneyland, take the time to go to Normandy and visit the D-Day beaches, the Peace museum at Caen and the American cemetery at Coleville sur Mer. Gives you a new prospective on freedom. Enjoy the tuba factory! Tusabtuba

Markneukirchen (VMI, B&S) is about 300 km up the road from Waldkraiburg (Miraphone), and Hradec Kralove (Cerveny) isn't too awfully far from there. If you're going, those places might be fun as well. And then to Mainz (Alexander). To my untrained eye those distances all look driveable (though Mainz might be tough).

We weren't planning on renting a car - though we might look into it. We are planning on staying in Munich and taking a train out to the plant. I know there are other tuba companies in the area - but he plays a Miraphone. They told us we have to be there by 10 AM since their staff starts at sunrise and are done by lunch time. He is very excited to visit there.

-michelle

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Now your talking! They would be a blast to see. It looks like we'll be in the Paris area for about a week mid to late June.

-michelle

I shared the videos with my son - he loved it! What a a great band. I hope we can see them perform. Thank you!

Visiting the Miraphone factory is a wonderful experience... and what is completely amazing about the place is that it is employee-owned and all the materials come from Germany and the horns are handmade by artisans right there on site. It's a fascinating process to see.

As mentioned before the train to Waldkraiburg is about 1.5 hours (or less) from Munich. I believe it's an easy direct train from the Munich Hauptbahnhof (Munich Central Station), and Munich itself is very easy to navigate via train.

Have fun!