How many at YOUR TubaChristmas?

[Frank Byrne]

We had 701 performers in Kansas City over two performances. AND we had capacity audiences to hear the performances. Attendance last Monday was so great I thought we'd have people fighting to get in. How about you?

[Dave Detwiler]

Wow! 701 - that's awesome! Just saw a photo of it online and, just wondering, were Sousaphones not allowed? Didn't see a single one in the photo. Pretty sure Sousa would frown at that!

We had about 80 at the Lansdale, PA TubaChristmas, which I think might be our largest yet. Fun stuff.

[bighonkintuba]

Impressive. Most impressive.

[michael_glenn]

The first Phoenixville, PA TUBACHRISTMAS had 33 performers. Not bad for a first!

[1895King]

We had 19 in Great Falls, MT, down from previous years. Only 2 students and one of those was the son of another player.

[opus37]

We had about 70 in St. Paul. That is down a bit. We routinely have over 100. there was 1 Sousaphone and 2 helicons. Oldest horns were from 1921 and 1922. Player age range was 11 to 78. The crowd was really into it. The church was full and they sang and clapped enthusiastically.

[bort]

Well, I'll make it 71 next year. That's still a pretty healthy number!

On the other hand, 700 just seems impressive but excessive. It reminds me of one of those "massed band days" from HS or college, where the entire football field is filled with bands. It looks cool but it doesn't sound great. Either way, must have been fun at least for the people who participated.

More importantly... who knew there were 700 tuba players in the area!

[bort]

Ah... well then, still interesting there are that many physical instruments in the area!

[Kevin Hendrick]

We had 25 at Bell's in Kalamazoo on Sunday (up from 13 last year -- the weather was *much* improved this year). Since the stage at Bell's is big enough to hold 30 without too much crowding, 25 fit comfortably.

The New Year's Fest generally runs from 30 to 60, again depending on weather ... will post this year's total in January.

[Frank Byrne]

Having that many was a "specacle" but it sounded better than you might imagine. We encourage everyone to play at a modest dynamic and to listen, and both Scott Watson and I thought it was perhaps our best yet. Still, it WAS a massive sound. The part that still amazes me is how wildly enthusiastic the audiences are. There are a number of people who think our TubaChristmas is "their favorite holiday event" Go figure!

[bearphonium]

We had 52 at ours, and it was the most musical of any that I have participated in. Our age range was 14-92, with two at 17 and two others over 90. Oldest horn was a pin valve euphonium from the 1880's (played by the oldest player; the quip was he bought it new...) Had one helicon, I did not have my sousaphone and we missed the Oregon Marching Band section as they were in California following the Pac 12 Championship. (GO DUCKS!) We had an overflow crowd of about 350 if my quick counting was accurate.

[DonShirer]

Connecticut Tuba Christmas had 90 ± 2 players, trending upward. One helicon, several flashing sousaphones. Youngest player was 10 I think.

Congratulations KC, evidently everything IS really up to date there!

[The Big Ben]

I've gone to the ones in Bellevue, WA and Bellingham, WA in previous years but missed them this year. There will be one in Silverdale, WA (near Bremerton, WA) on the 20th. I'm going and it is the first time there is a TC in Silverdale. Hope there are a lot of players and listeners.

[davidgilbreath]

The Atlanta event (5 December) was my first TubaChristmas, led by Don Strand. Seemed to be over 300 musicians, with about 30 sousaphones, 1 Wessex CC tornister, zero Eb and zero F axes. Tons of schoolkids who were very enthusiastic and only a few blato-saurus types. I was glad to see Don point out a blatting eupher and one blasty sousaphone. He handled it quite well, emphasizing Harvey's desire that we sound musical at all times. Pleased to see so many girls playing AND having a good time.

Today, the little mill town of Porterdale, Georgia held their sixth TubaChristmas and there were about 44 present. One strapping young man (local kid who attends Auburn) brought his PT-6p and he played with a delicious sound. A cat from Chicago was there with a borrowed sousaphone, that gave us four. Director also reminded us to play musically after I mentioned it to him. Audience sang with us. Small town intimacy was evident.

[smitwill1]

We had 33 here in Idaho Falls--fairly evenly split between euphoniums and tubas. No sousaphones this year, which was a change from years past. My daughter was the youngest at 12 (her third TC) and there was an older gentleman in his later 70's who has been to all the TCs here in Idaho Falls--a total of 18. He had three hats full of pins that were too heavy to be worn! The community museum hosted us and opened admission to their current display of nativity scenes from around the world. Appreciative audience--nice sing-along on the repeated verses.

[bighonkintuba]

The Rockefeller Center organizers reported 506 musicians, ranging from age 8 to 86 (the conductor's dad). The ensemble sounded pretty good and we had nice weather.


I saw a raincatcher sousaphone and a double-belled euphonium.

My first time playing F tuba in public.

[eupher61]

Yeah. .. The Guiness thing is nice, but there have been many bigger in Akron and KC both.

Frank, that was 700 combined the 2 days, right? What was the split per day?

St Louis--102. 1 souzie, 1 helicon, oldest horn was an 1980s baritone of some kind.

[scottw]

For the 4th Woodstown [NJ] TC, we had a very well-balanced group of 27, up from 19 last year. The conductor, Ron Miller was excellent in getting musicality from all. There was only one sousaphone, no double-bells. It is getting more established each year and is a lot of fun for all. The oldest was 82, the youngest 12.

Up next: Philadelphia at the Kimmel Center next Sunday, 12-21. Due to host restrictions, that is divided into 2 sittings of 100 apiece; I am doing the 1pm concert.

[Ricko]

In Nashville, Tennessee today, we had around 150 players and about 1200 attendees. It was a lot of fun!

Hope to see you next year!

Ricko

[Veloise]

For the nine years I've coordinated TC in Grand Rapids, we've always had about 44 players. (Lousy weather: 25. Good weather: 44)

This year: 44, including Matt the director and yrs truly. About half new faces, with a ton of younger players. Five pre-teens, a good handfull of college kids. Youngest age 11, oldest 66 (yikes, my taking that slot is coming!), and a family of four euphs drove 166 miles from metro Detroit.

Local paper dropped in, check it out. For the first time I was able to secure a venue that didn't require participation from another group or concert. (My church.)
http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/gran ... _fill.html" target="_blank

Most of the descriptions are mine (press release the week before). Only one of my Fat TUBASday regulars was able to attend, so that didn't happen, but we had an instant quintet who ran down a lengthy three-piece chart.

My favorite part of making announcements: "this ensemble has been playing together for [checks watch about three hours." For the quintet, they finished playing, dropped their horns back, stood up as one, and beamed at the audience. I made sure the crowd knew that they'd been "together" for about an hour.

We played the fermata in We Wish, I scoped them into "stand up!" and the crowd clapped and clapped. We had maybe 150 audience, and they wouldn't stop. For an encore we picked up Jingle Bells at National emblem, with audience providing aux perc (their keys). Afterwards, a standing O, and again they just would.not.stop clapping.

Happily, my regulars want to return to Fountain Street next year.

--Karen D.