If you felt a low grumbling sound somewhere between your breastplate and bowels last night, a sonic force emanating from the direction of North Virginia, do not be alarmed. It was in fact a military exercise. The U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own” was performing tuba. A lot of tuba.
Last night saw the conclusion of the 2009 Annual Tuba-Euphonium Conference, featuring a big brass–centric concert by “Pershing’s Own.” Naturally, the night started with a John Philip Sousa march (for which the tuba and euphonium section dropped the trio a full octave). Euphonium and tuba soloists Matthew Murchison, Danny Helseth, Staff Sergeant Tom Bratten, Staff Sergeant Adam Lesserd, and Master Chief Musician Roger Behrend (Navy) played classical arrangements and new conciertos, highlighting the expressive and lyrical capacity of the euphonium and tuba.
Master Chief Behrend’s performance marked a special retirement send-off. He played an arrangement of Italian operatic “seduction” themes specially arranged for him in 2005 by Master Chief Gerald Ascione—an arrangement to prove once and for all that euphoniums are for lovers. Bookmark this one for Valentine’s Day: Click to hear Master Chief Behren on solo euphonium on “Tre Canzone Italiana”.
The highlight of the evening came with Øystein Baadsvik’s solo tuba performance. Baadsvik is generally recognized as the greatest tuba player in the world, a player who stands a head taller (figuratively and literally) than any other tubist around. Hearing him play, you would swear he couldn’t be playing the horn at the heart of oom-pa music. In part, you’d be right: Baadsvik plays a custom Miraphone tuba that Tubenet identifies as “the Norwegian Star,” a solo horn with a slightly narrower bore. He shows off his technical chops on an arrangement of “Carnival of Venice” for tuba and piano. Baadsvik has also pushed the tuba’s formal limits with work like “Fnugg Blue”, an original prog/fusion composition.
A tuba-euphonium conference wouldn’t be complete without assembling all the tuba and euphonium players on one stage to bellow. And so they did, roaring through Karl King’s “The Melody Shop” march and Getty Huffine’s “Them Basses”. Tubas stormed Kenmore Middle School auditorium. (Don’t knock it. Home to the Arlington Philharmonic and “Pershing’s Own,” the Kenmore auditorium is an absurdly nice facility.)
A tuba-euphonium conference is also not complete until someone tells an awful tuba joke. Now, I didn’t attend all 40 hours of recitals, so I can’t say it never happened, but it didn’t happen last night. Without further ado:
Q: A tuba player and a euphonium player are sitting in a car. Who’s driving?
A: A policeman.Two tuba players walk past a bar. Hey, it could happen.
Photos by Kriston Capps
