TUBACHRISTMAS events have been held around the country to showcase these powerful instruments.
TUBACHRISTMAS was founded by Harvey Phillips in 1974 to honor his mentor William J. Bell, who was born on Christmas Day in 1902. Since the first concert in New York City’s Rockefeller Plaza, it has grown to not only honor Phillips’ and Bell’s contributions, but also as a celebration of the artists, teachers and composers who have inspired many.
A performance was held over the weekend at Rockford West Middle School’s auditorium.
The tubas don't get all of the attention, as they share the stage with their valved relative, the euphonium.
"A euphonium is about the size of a person’s chest," said Max Medlock, co-director of the Rockford Kontraband, a summer ensemble consisting of tubas and euphoniums, "so it’s much smaller than a full-sized tuba, and it plays about an octave or two higher than a tuba."
Last year, 30 people participated in the Kontraband, playing a mixture of music, including an original arrangement. Medlock has worked with Dennis Meacham, the founder of the Rockford Kontraband, before. Meacham coordinated this Rockford’s TUBACHRISTMAS concert.
“When we both ended up here in Rockford, [Meacham] approached me and said ‘Hey, how would you feel about starting a Kontraband again?’ And we just went from there about three years ago, and each year it’s grown.”
That momentum lent itself to reviving the local performance this holiday season.
The last TUBACHRISTMAS in Rockford was held in 2019, and since then Meacham has planned to bring it back.
“Last year," he said, "I was talking to a few other people about trying to start it [but] I ran out of time and have been wanting to do it ever since.”
It’s also a way to highlight the members of the low brass family of instruments in a way that you often don’t hear.
This year’s TUBACHRISTMAS was a bit larger than the summer’s Kontraband, with 36 performers from all walks of life participating, from middle and high school students to retired engineers, such as Mark Stratemeyer. He’s played in a TUBACHRISTMAS before, playing his first concert last year in Antioch, Illinois, just near the Illinois-Wisconsin border. He got his start in high school, partly out of necessity.
“I started out on trombone," Stratemeyer said. "In junior or senior year, we needed a tuba, so I picked up the tuba, and I’ve been loving it ever since.”
The concert was a bigger success than Meacham was expecting, with a larger audience clapping along to the holiday favorites and helping the area’s next generation of tuba and euphonium players gain more confidence and experience.
But most of all, it was about letting the music take center stage during "the most wonderful time of the year."
