Tuba Christmas in Dayton, 1998

For Notes about the 1997 Tuba Christmas, see the 1997 section a little lower:

The Tuba Christmas in Dayton this year was a great success. The weather was wonderful. Last year it had rained. The Square in the middle of town was completely packed with adults and children. On the morning of Tuba Christmas this year, I bought a Santa Claus wig and beard. This was added to the Santa Claus outfit that I wore last year.

Walking through downtown Dayton wearing a Santa Claus outfit was amazing. I will always remember the five-year-old girl who looked up that me out of a hole in the crowd, and said to her mother, in a hushed voice "there is Santa Claus!"

Jerry Hauer, who hosted this Tuba Christmas, went well out of his way to make the many tuba players feel at home. Several people, including me, had trouble with a not so nice neighbor across the street. When I returned from the Courthouse Square, I found my car had been towed away. Out of the goodness of his heart, Mr. Hauer arranged for me to get my car back at no expense to myself. I have seldom seen unselfish , self giving behavior which matches what Mr. Hauer did for us. Next year we will make sure that that area is blocked so that no one else gets their car towed away.

All in all, this Tuba Christmas was fun, and the group of tuba players made this a first-class musical event. I look forward to participating again next year.

Tuba Christmas in Dayton, 1997

These notes were written just before Christmas, 1997. It was really fun to play Tuba Christmas in Dayton. I am looking forward to doing this again next fall.

I just got back from Tuba Christmas! What fun. This year in Dayton, we had 136 players. The TubaChristmas concert was on the court house steps and was in conjunction with the lighting of the City's Christmas tree.

The rehersal started promptly at 6 PM after a short time of registration. Total costs included a TubaChristmas book (II) for $10 and a $5 registration fee. We sat down under the direction of Francis (Buddy) Laws, professor of euphonium at Wright State University, for a brief run through of the numbers we would be playing outside.

After 45 minutes of rehersal, there was a judging of best decorated tuba and euphonium. Awards were made to the oldest (84) and youngest (12) players.

We then walked 2 1/2 blocks to the courthouse square for our concert. There were thousands of people jammed into the square. They were pretty good at singing the Christmas carols with us. What a blast to play music well with so much low brass!

Notes for players: bring some way to hold your music. A lyre is OK, or a foldable stand works too. Don't expect to sit down after rehersal until finished playing. And think of a solution to every problem ahead of time. Sometimes this means finding a way to keep valves from freezing. Tonight it meant finding a way to keep music dry in a drizzle. I wish I would have scotch guarded my pages!

But, the most important thing is to get out there and play. We hope to break 150 next year! What with the mayor of Dayton proclaming 28 November 1997 as TubaChristmas Day, we might make it.