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On Saturday December 7th the Oregon Tuba Association held
it's twenty-forth Tuba Carol Christmas Concert. If you were not able to attend,
you missed a very good time.
This year the event was relocated to
Springfield, Oregon, being a part of the annual citywide holiday celebration
which culminated with a large parade through the city. The Ensemble wishes to
thank Jeff Turay and Dana Demant for their work in coordinating the event with
the Springfield Chamber of Commerce.
An impressive number of tuba, euphonium
and baritone horn players gathered in the morning for rehearsal, held in the
Springfield High School Band room.
massed ensemble working out the kinks in morning rehearsal
As in years past, an impressive number of tuba, euphonium
and baritone horn players gathered in the morning for rehearsal, with the event
culminating in a splendid free concert in downtown Eugene in the early
afternoon.
This year the Ensemble was honored to feature past OTA
President Jeff Turay and current Ensemble conductor John Bigelow as co-conductor. Jeff took the assembled group of 50+
musicians through a pleasant yet thorough 2 hour rehearsal,
which was interrupted only once by our preeminent emcee and stand-up comedian,
former OTE tubist John Huenink, who was kind enough to come down from
Portland (just try to stop him) and entertain both the musicians and the
afternoon audience with the same old sure-fire jokes. Actually, I believe I
heard a couple of new ones. Full marks, John.
The weather was clear but very cold. A large crowd gathered and seemed to enjoy the music and the jokes
fully. This being our first performance of the Christmas Concert in Springfield,
we were a bit uncertain about the expected size of the audience. We were pleased
to see that a significant crowd had assembled by the time the music began. They
could not resist the appeal of all those beautiful horns, the wonderful songs
and the timeless jokes.
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Thanks again to everyone who made this event
such a success. See you again next year!
 
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