Free Tuba Christmas show more than ‘oompah’
Tuba and euphonium players will invade Oklahoma City’s Penn Square Mall on Saturday to perform a concert of seasonal music arranged uniquely for the two low-brass instruments.
Oklahoma City’s first Tuba Christmas concert since 2003 will begin at 2 p.m. on the upper west level, outside the Dillard’s West department store, said Ryan Robinson, tuba and euphonium professor at Oklahoma City University. There is no charge to attend the approximately hourlong concert, Robinson said, with shoppers inside the mall free to come and go as they please.
Registration for participants begins at 8:30 a.m. Saturday in OCU’s Wanda L. Bass School of Music, Robinson said. The group will rehearse from 10 a.m. to noon, he said.
Robinson said participation is open to any tuba or euphonium player, regardless of age. Cost is $10 to register, and $20 for a music book of Christmas selections arranged specifically for tubas and euphoniums. Players who buy a Tuba Christmas music book may keep it for future performances.
Robinson said anyone who has a music book from a previous Tuba Christmas concert may use it.
Tuba Christmas, conceived by tubist Harvey Phillips, began in 1974 with a concert in New York City and has been an annual tradition around the world ever since, according to information on the website of the Harvey Phillips Foundation, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to developing, expanding and preserving music, and to sponsoring the annual concerts.
Robinson has taught at OCU for the past seven years, and said he’s thought for awhile about organizing a Tuba Christmas concert in Oklahoma City. The seasonal concerts elsewhere, he said, have done much to promote tubas and euphoniums as serious musical instruments.
“It shows we can play more than ‘oompah’ ” he said. “We’ll have a good time and play some (enjoyable) Christmas music.”
The musical selections are written in four parts — two for tuba and two for euphonium, Robinson said. The music itself is “early high-school level — the kind we can put together in one rehearsal,” he said.
“Most people who played in high school can play this music,” he said.
Robinson said he and Matthew Mailman, OCU director of bands, will serve as conductors.
He said he hopes a large number of tuba and euphonium players will turn out for the concert.
“We want the word out, and (hope to) get as many participants as we can. I’m hoping for 100 performers,” he said.
Tuba Christmas concerts also are scheduled this month in Tulsa, Bartlesville and Weatherford.