Tuba enthusiasts celebrated the 15th annual TubaChristmas on an unseasonably warm afternoon on Sunday at Valparaiso University.
Reid Venstrom, 9, of Valparaiso, came in shorts. “I just like the music,” he said of the annual outing he makes with his parents, two siblings, and extended family, who make the drive in from Illinois.
“It’s like a four-generation family outing,” said Reid’s grandma Christel Springmire, of Sycamore, Illinois.
The group was heading to dinner after the one-hour concert.
“It seemed like they had more pieces today,” Springmire said of the musicians who indeed nearly touched knees with the first row of the audience this year.
“OK, everybody, here we go,” announced conductor Jeff Doebler, as he and the brass launched into the first number of the performance, “Adeste Fideles,” to cheers from the audience.
At least two tubas sported flashing Christmas lights, while one was topped with a tree and presents. And no formal concert black for the performers here. Sneakers and jeans prevailed, topped with a sea of Christmas sweaters and sweatshirts, one Santa-splashed Hawaiian shirt, Santa hats, and red, white and green stocking caps galore.
While it was the 15th annual TubaChristmas for VU, the event is in its 51st year and over 200 performances will be put on internationally.
“That gives us a palindrome of 1551,” Doebler said of VU’s event, as event organizer and VU associate professor Aimee Tomasek pointed out.
The event is super casual, as Doebler mentioned, making it a great event for families with young children still working out the kinks of proper concert etiquette. The deep resonance of the helicons, J-horns, baritones, double-bell euphoniums and others hide a multitude of little voices and dropped items.
It’s also a great event for brass enthusiasts to geek out. When a single, black J-horn was held up by a performer during the rundown of participating tubas, with an explanation from Doebler that “a J-horn is like a beginner tuba,” it was met with applause. “It’s like a baby tuba!” someone shouted from the audience.
In a quest to set a record, 12 double-bell euphoniums were counted this year. With 14 selections, always ending with “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” 16-year-old Joe Kurtis prefers the VU TubaChristmas to any other. “There are more pieces than the other ones,” he said. “Some of them play the exact same pieces every year.” At VU they mix it up from a selection of over 30 holiday favorites.
Kurtis and his dad Gary Kurtis, both of Mishawaka, have been playing their euphonium and F tuba, respectively, at VU for several years running. “He prefers this one over Elkhart or New Carlisle,” Gary said of two other Tuba Christmas venues the two have been to.
Across the semicircle, another father/son duo was performing as well. Thirteen-year-old Luis Hernandez and his dad Francisco Hernandez, of Highland, were playing euphonium and baritone, respectively.
“It’s a lot of fun and it’s not real high-pressure,” said Francisco, who was in his fourth year performing at TubaChristmas. For Luis, it was the second time.
“I’m going to keep doing this until I’m 100 years old so I can be the oldest and I will have been doing it the longest,” Luis said with a big smile.
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
