Low Notes & High Spirits

Christmas carols and bells mark the arrival of Christmas, but at yearly musical gathering across the US, a different sound rings in the holiday season. Dedicated groups of brass instrumentalists gather together to celebrate the beautiful, if unwieldy, instruments they play and to present familiar songs in a different, deeper setting.

Tuba Christmas brings out tuba, euphonium, and baritone players for lively concerts of holiday music and puts those big instruments in the spotlight. The celebration was founded by famed tubist and educator Harvey Phillips, as a tribute to his teacher, the late William J. Bell and the first was held at New York's Rockefeller Plaza in 1974. Players performed four-part arrangements of Christmas carols and hymns arranged for two tenor and two bass instruments -- the higher parts filled by baritones and euphoniums, and the lower ones by tubas and sousaphones.

The sound of Tuba Christmas is massive and melodious, with ringing high notes and deep bass. Many players deck their instruments with lights and ornaments and wear decorative hats and scarves.

Festivities

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Players gather at venues ranging from the base of the Washington Monument to the Inner Harbor of Baltimore, Maryland. They lug their cases onto the ice rink at Rockefeller Plaza for the New York City event, and into the courtyards of shopping malls. In some cities, it's an outdoor attraction, with players braving chapped lips and frozen fingers.

John Oehlers, 42, of Collingswood, New Jersey, played Tuba Christmas for the first time in 2007. Oehlers, a high school German teacher who Oehlers picks up the instrument once a month or so for performances at his church, first grew attached to the tuba during high school band. "It's somewhat unique, and not everybody plays it," he says. "I've always enjoyed bass instruments and the sound."

On December 1, the day of the Philadelphia event, he got a call from Eric Carlson, a close friend who plays trombone in The Philadelphia Orchestra. "I heard about the one in Atlantic City and almost went," Oehlers says, "and every year on the news, you hear a few seconds of it. So I knew about it, but I hadn't thought about going until Eric invited me." Oehlers even decorated his instrument, swathing it with ribbons and dangling ornaments from its bell and valves.

Preconcert rehearsals get players warmed up and accustomed to playing in such a large group. Seeing the conductor over the flared bells is usually the greatest challenge, along with maintaining stamina. "We had rehearsal for two hours beforehand, and my lips were already starting to go," Oehlers says.

Though some of the high notes eluded him during the warm-up, Oehlers took the stage with 72 other players for a concert in the lobby at Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, home to many of Philly's professional ensembles. A crowd of several hundred gathered, craning their necks to take in the sight. Oehlers was seated between Eric Carlson and Carol Jantsch, principal tuba for the Philadelphia Orchestra. Despite the daunting company, he held his own on the first tuba part and delighted at playing some of his favorite carols, including "We Three Kings" and "O Little Town of Bethlehem.

A Sincere Celebration

Tuba Christmas has become popular largely because of its novelty. Crowds flock to see the spectacle of so many large instruments, the way musicians are drawn to the tuba in the first place: it's just so different. These instruments make an impression.

Jay Krush, a professional tuba player and instructor at Temple University,organizes the Philadelphia event and directed the ensemble at Kimmel Center. He arranges the event to run during the afternoon before a major holiday performance; last year, it was the Vienna Boys Choir, and this year, it will be a performance of The Nutcracker ballet. Even with his professional playing obligations, Krush loves putting time aside for Tuba Christmas. "Sometimes it takes a seasoned pro to put it all together," he says, adding. "The range of participants runs from little kids to professionals, and it's such a sincere thing."

Krush involves the audience, too, directing them to shake their keys during "Jingle Bells" and to sing along to a few of the carols near the end of the concert. He's also added a few of his own arrangements to the Tuba Christmas book, including a version of "The Dreidel Song," for those celebrating Hanukkah.

Though some Tuba Christmases draw hundreds of players, Krush prefers the 70 to 80 members who turn up each year in Philadelphia. "It's a good size, because it sounds impressive and we can still rehearse," he says. "The group really tunes and works on dynamics, but it still has that spectacle."

One part of the spectacle in previous years was a player who rigged a model train set to run along the bell of his tuba. Krush laughs at the memory of this spirited tubist and says, "He had to hold the tuba very carefully."

Holiday Spirit

Melissa Cannan, 37, has never rigged up her baritone in quite that way, but she's still a true low brass devotee, moving from playing baritone in the ensemble to organizing the event and conducting the group in just a few years. An elementary school band teacher from Clifton Springs, New York, Cannan first took part in Tuba Christmas while a student at Ithaca College. After playing at several events throughout upstate New York, Cannan wanted to organize one in Syracuse, New York. "I contacted the Harvey Phillips Foundation [which administers Tuba Christmas], found a location, and it took off from there," she says. "Our first was in 2000 and we played at a park. It was cold, so we explored taking it inside."

The 2007 Syracuse Tuba Christmas attracted more than 100 players to a mall on the east side of the city, and Cannan says that the hard work that goes into planning it is worth it. "Many people come back year after year," she says.

Cannan conducted the assembled musicians in previous years, but has passed that duty on to a tuba-playing colleague so she can play her instrument, which she first picked up in fourth grade. "I think it is great that everyone gets into the spirit and decorates their instruments," she says. "I never get around to decorating my own instrument but I do have a colorful plastic mouthpiece, and my husband plays on my double bell euphonium, which is pretty cool."

Still, Cannan exudes Tuba Christmas spirit, as well as the pride of taking her instrument from the back of the band to the front of the stage. For both the sound and the spectacle, it's a one-of-a-kind event.