Tubafest YYC moves the tuba players from back row to up front

Holiday Tubafest YYC bringing the big brass cheer You might not associate tubas with holiday music, but if you're a fan of the big brass instrument, we've got the event for you.

The Holiday TubaFest YYC is a celebration of all things tuba and is a gathering of players from 12 years old and up, of all abilities, for an afternoon of Christmas music.

Nathan Gingrich, band and jazz music director at William Aberhart High School organizes the one-day event.

Gingrich, who brought it to Calgary in 2008, says it's been a popular holiday gathering all over North America for the last 50 years.

"We were probably 17 or 18 tubas that year and since then we're regularly about 100 to 120," he said. "It's the largest of its kind in Canada, (and the sound created is) rich, dark, warm, you can kind of bask in the sound,. It's awesome."

Gingrich says tuba players are relegated to the back of the orchestra, but at TubaFest, they're front and centre.

"They're often the accompaniment instrument," he said. "They're laying down the foundation, the root of the chord and often tuba players kind of get used to that, they're in the back row, they're geographically speaking far away from the director.

"So this (festival)," he added, "is an opportunity to have them sit towards the front."

'Your lips vibrate'

Fifteen-year-old Ruby Bowen picked up a euphonium for the first time almost two months ago at the encouragement of Gingrich. Now the Grade 10 student is learning from the other tuba players around her and will take part in TubaFest.

"You blow into it and your lips vibrate," she said. "If your lips are closer together and you're vibrating faster, then it's going to go higher, if you loosen your lips and vibrate slower, it's going to go lower kind of thing.

"Yeah it's weird," she added. " I'm not used to it because with woodwinds you kind of just blow and then it makes a noise."

Annika Keatly joined band in Grade 7 at the encouragement of her parents. Now in Grade 12, she's happy to be part of TubaFest.

"There aren't a lot of people in the low brass section," she said. "Normally there's like more higher people, more melody so having this opportunity to be in a room full of low brass instruments, it's really fun because there's a lot of community there that just happens naturally."

Keatly graduates in the spring of 2025 and is going to university to study chemistry.

"I want to keep playing recreationally because it's really fun, it's a great creative outlet because I'm going to go into the sciences," she said. "I don't think professionally music is in my future, but I would love to keep doing it."

Omari Holakai is the warmup leader at the December 7th event. He graduated from William Aberhart in 2022 and is now a bachelor of music third year student.

"I was really into football," he said. "That's all I wanted to do and I had no idea that I would actually do this, if you told me three years ago that I'd be doing this now, I'd be like no way."

Holakai credits Gingrich for helping him realize his talent on the tuba and encourage him to practice and play.

"My main focus of music (today) is composition and writing," he said. "I love writing, I love looking at film scores especially, that's my number one thing and yeah, the tuba has really brought a lot of good things to my life."

CPO joins in

Gingrich says in past years members of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra come and play at TubaFest.

This year  Lorna McLaughlin will be directing the players in a number of Christmas melodies.

Gingrich says it's a fun event for the whole family.

"I think it's a culture builder around the instrument, it develops a bit of a sense of identity for the instrument," he said. "It gives you a sense of camaraderie and that we were in this together and so I think it does a lot as far as that sense of ownership of the instrument too and pride."

The Holiday TubaFest YYC takes place Saturday, December seventh at the Notre Dame High School, 11900 Country Village Link, NE. Warm-ups start at 10am and the festive concert begins at 2 p.m.. Organizers are also accepting donations to the Calgary Food Bank.

Learn more about the event here.