German Brass Ensemble ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGChxHnbnNE
German Brass
TRADITION AND INNOVATION
GERMAN BRASS is both: tradition and progress. But above all the ensemble has for years been a synonym for brass music at its highest level. A pioneer among the German brass ensembles, GERMAN BRASS has co-initiated the brass movement from its beginnings in 1974 and has influenced it decisively ever since.

GERMAN BRASS has succeeded in creating "diversity in unity", i.e. to work the miracle of producing a unique, unmistakable collective sound with ten individualists and renowned soloists from outstanding first-class German orchestras. As an ensemble they play transparent chamber music but at the same time with symphonic magnificence and dynamics that only brass instrumentalists can produce.

TubaChristmas is a great time of year!

Tuba 'Dragster'

For the tuba player with everything!
It comes with a modified 5-valve Mirafone engine...

Big Bore Brass Tuba Choir in concert

The Big Bore Brass Tuba Choir will be in concert on Wednesday, November 17, 2010 at 6:00 pm at the Forestville High School Auditorium (4 Academy - Forestville, NY 14062).

The Big Bore Brass Tuba Choir will be under the direction of special guest conductor: Andre Lousada.

Andre Lousada is the Graduate Assistant of Orchestras @ SUNY Fredonia. He was born and raised in Porto, Portugal. Andre finished his BM in conducting at the Superior Conservatory of Gaia (Portugal) where he studied with Mario Mateus, Manuel Ivo Cruz, Alvaro Salazar; and studied piano with Jairo Grossi and Angel Gonzalez.

Immediately following The Big Bore Brass Tuba Choir performance ... The New Horizons Band of Western New York will begin their concert at 6:30 pm. The New Horizons band is under the direction of Dr. Kate Levy, assistant professor of music at SUNY Fredonia.

Free admission - No tickets required.

Harry Smith (CBS News) ... a tuba player?

Harvey Phillips Liberated the Tuba
"Just a Minute": Harry Smith's Daily Commentaries on News and Issues of the Day
by Harry Smith (CBS)

Whenever people ask me if I play a musical instrument, and I say the tuba, they giggle or frown. To be a tuba player is to be the object of scorn and derision. Oom pah, oom pah…they howl! For many people the tuba is a joke, a musical punch line. We tuba players were rarely taken seriously as musicians or music makers…until Harvey Phillips came along. Harvey knew how to make a tuba sing. He was a wizard as a player and a brilliant composer. A pal and I played a devilishly difficult tuba duet at the state high school music contest written by Phillips. We won a perfect score and brought down the house. Harvey was the tuba's liberator. He played recitals at Carnegie Hall and was the force behind the now ubiquitous tuba Christmas. He was a brilliant mentor whose disciples continue to spread his philosophy that tubas can indeed make beautiful music. Harvey Phillips died last week at the age of 80.

Harvey Phillips (1929 - 2010)

Professor emeritus, musical innovator passes
By Alex Benson | IDS








A photo of Harvey Phillips, distinguished professor emeritus and life-long tuba player, hangs on the wall of his protege, professor of tuba Dan Perantoni.

It hangs with other well-known, but now deceased musicians.

Phillips, 80, died in his home Wednesday of Parkinson’s
disease.

Perantoni said the musician did for tuba what Bob Knight did for Indiana basketball — positively speaking.

“Phillips was the busiest tuba player — ever,” Perantoni said.

Phillips began his career as a teenager in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Band. He also did freelance work composing jingles from 1950 to 1971 while playing around the world in various bands and orchestras.

In 1954, he helped found the New York Brass Quintet, and he joined the IU faculty in 1971.

Over time, the tuba player garnered dozens of honors.

He was the first wind instrument player to be inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame, and in 2008, he received the IU President’s Medal for Excellence — one of the highest honors a president can bestow.

Even the former governor of his home state, Missouri, declared a weekend to be “Harvey Phillips Weekend” in 1985.

Phillips changed the way musicians and critics thought of the tuba.

He made people listen, and in return, “ ... all brass players and all music benefited,”
Perantoni said.

Phillips’ tuba solos captured composers’ attention, which caused them to compose specifically for the instrument.

“The tuba is a musical instrument just like anything else,” Perantoni said. “I can put many words to it. That’s the good thing about brass instruments.”

Phillips was founder and president of the Harvey Phillips Foundation, Inc., which sponsors several worldwide music events to bring tuba players together.

One of his favorite events, Perantoni said, was TubaChristmas.

“Nobody loved Christmas more than Harvey,” he said.

Octubafest, for which IU music students are currently preparing, is another annual event initiated by Phillips.

The performance will take place at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Ford-Crawford Hall.
“Life goes on ... as Harvey would do,” Perantoni said.

It was Phillips, Perantoni said, who lassoed him into playing tuba — Perantoni now occupies one of the offices Phillips used before he retired.

Phillips is survived by his wife, Carol, and sons Jesse, Harvey Jr. and Thomas.
Parkinson’s disease began to take its toll on Phillips during the last decade of his life, his wife Carol said.

In 1998, after retiring from IU, Carol said he was trying to play a tune with no vibrato but couldn't do it.

Carol and Harvey would have been together for 57 years this February.

“And I’d do it all over again,” Carol said.