Faculty
Bill clark, TubaChristmas
Tuba Christmas Concert
Directed by Bill Clark
Larimer Square
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Folks tapped their toes to their favorite holiday tunes at the 31st annual TubaChristmas concert on Larimer Square. Featuring 400 tuba players from all over the region and produced by the University of Colorado Denver’s College of Arts & Media, the TubaChristmas concert is one of the most celebrated and longest-running holiday festivities in Colorado! LarimerStreet from 14th to 15th Streets will be closed for this event from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The Story of TubaChristmas:
In 1974, when I was teaching at the University of Denver, (I
now am a member of the faculty of the University of Colorado Denver. Please
don’t confuse the two great institutions) a few of my students suggested
that we organize a tuba caroling party. Our objective was to surprise a
few of our friends by sneaking up on their homes and rendering some low range
holiday music. It was so much fun for both the performers and the astonished
homeowners and their pets, that the next year we decided to organize a concert. At
the time I was playing at Your Father’s Mustache. The Mustache was located
in Larimer Square and Dana Crawford, the owner of Denver’s first Lo Do restoration
block, agreed to let us stage the event there. We received some help from
the print media and the first concert in December of 1975 was an indisputable
success.
For about ten years the concert was called The Annual Tuba Caroling Concert but
later I decided to affiliate with an organization called TubaChristmas managed
by Harvey Phillips. He
actually thought of the crazy idea about the same time as my DU students and
me. The TubaChristmas organization is a big help, providing excellent musical
arrangements and items we can sell to help us continue to present the concert. The
concert is a backward event with regard to funding—the audience enjoys it at
no charge and the performers pay to be in it. There is a registration fee and
all that the performers get is a button with the year on it to prove they braved
the cold and survived. We also receive a performance fee from Larimer Square. If
you attend the concert, you can support us by purchasing a TubaChristmas hat
or scarf—gorgeous articles of winter clothing. The main expense we have is mailing
notices to every high school in Colorado and about 1,000 tuba and euphonium players.
We tried playing indoors for two years at Cinderella City, but the majority
of the performers prefer to play outside. Larimer Square which I think is a
beautiful setting still hosts the concert. Some years, the weather has been
beautiful, in the 60s or even 70s, but sometimes it is so cold the valves freeze
and we can barely play. The concerts are never cancelled though and the participants
love reminiscing about the coldest and snowiest ones.
The performers come from all around the state and many are students. Last year our youngest was 8 years old and the oldest was over 80. There are lots of family groups, mothers and fathers and grandmothers and grandfathers with their children and grand children. Some of the players decorate their instruments with holiday ornaments, garland, pine boughs and even lights. Tubas and euphoniums come in all styles and you will see Civil War antiques all kinds of Sousaphones, and even a few double-bell euphoniums. One year, Jim Calm even made is own version of a baritone which looked like something from a cartoon; I remember him referring to it as an Eb Mongolian Mother Horn.
The holiday music arranged in four parts—high and low baritone horns and high and low tubas. You will hear all your favorites like Silent Night, Deck the Halls, Silver Bells, Jingle Bells, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and some years we even blast our way through Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus. The sound is unique and actually quite mellow with all the low tones. We tuba and baritone players are glad to serve as the sub-structure of mixed ensembles, but once a year we like to prove that we can play melodies with style and grace. I’ll bet if you attend, you will come back every year.
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photo above: Jeffrey Beall
