Tuba lovers celebrated the fifteenth annual Tuba Birthday on an unseasonably heat afternoon Sunday at Valparaiso College.
Reid Fenstrom, 9, of Valparaiso, got here sporting shorts. “I completely love music,” he mentioned of the annual outing he takes together with his mother and father, two brothers and prolonged household, who drive in from Illinois.
“It is like a four-generation household picnic,” mentioned Christel Springmeier, Reid’s grandmother, of Sycamore, Illinois.
The group was heading to dinner after the hour-long live performance.
“They appear to have extra chops at this time,” Springmeier mentioned of the musicians who almost touched knees with the entrance row of the viewers this 12 months.
“Okay, everybody, right here we go,” introduced conductor Jeff Dobler, as he and the brass launched into the present’s first quantity, “Adeste Fideles,” to cheers from the viewers.
A minimum of two of the tubas have been sporting twinkling Christmas lights, whereas one had a tree and presents on prime of it. There isn’t any official black live performance for the performers right here. Sneakers and denims reigned supreme, with a sea of Christmas sweaters and sweaters, Santa-strewn Hawaiian shirts, Santa hats, and purple, white and inexperienced stocking caps galore.
Whereas it was VU’s fifteenth annual TubaChristmas, the occasion is in its 51st 12 months and can function greater than 200 performances internationally.
“This offers us a symmetrical view of the 12 months 1551,” Doppler mentioned of the Victoria College occasion, as occasion organizer and Victoria College affiliate professor Amy Tomasik identified.
The occasion may be very casual, Dobler mentioned, which makes it an excellent occasion for households with younger kids who’re nonetheless understanding the kinks of correct live performance etiquette. The deep resonance of helicons, J trumpets, baritones, double bell opphoniums and others hides a large number of small sounds and projected objects.
It is usually an excellent occasion for copper lovers. When one performer held up a black g-horn throughout a collaborating tuba demonstration, with Doppler explaining that “the g-horn is sort of a newbie’s tuba,” she was met with applause. “It is like a child tuba!” somebody within the viewers shouted.
In an try and set a document, 12 double-bell trumpet tones have been counted this 12 months. With 14 selections, all the time ending with “We Want You a Merry Christmas,” 16-year-old Joe Curtis prefers VU TubaChristmas to another Christmas. “There are extra items than different items,” he mentioned. “A few of them play the very same items yearly.” At VU they combine it up from a choice of over 30 vacation favorites.
Curtis and his father, Gary Curtis, each of Mishawaka, performed trumpet and F tuba, respectively, at VU for a number of years in a row. “He prefers this place to Elkhart or New Carlisle,” Gary mentioned of two different Christmas locations in Tuba the 2 have gone to.
Throughout the semicircle, one other father/son duo was additionally performing. 13-year-old Luis Hernandez and his father, Francisco Hernandez, of Highland, performed trumpet and baritone, respectively.
“It is numerous enjoyable and never actual excessive stress,” mentioned Francisco, who’s in his fourth 12 months acting at TubaChristmas. For Lewis, this was the second time.
“I am going to maintain doing this till I am 100 so I will be the oldest and I am going to maintain doing it the longest,” Lewis mentioned with a giant smile.
Shelley Jones is a contract reporter for the Publish-Tribune.
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