By CLARENCE TANG
clarence@newsroom.byu.edu
Comical costumes, wacky instruments and entertaining personalities all come part in parcel with a TubaChristmas concert. Saturday at 7 p.m., a massed ensemble of more than 60 tuba and euphonium players will present the annual Utah TubaChristmas concert at the Trolley Square Amphitheatre in Salt Lake City.
The traditional event, celebrated in over a 100 cities all over the country, is a tuba player's way of ushering in the Christmas season.
'They do it in most of the big cities across the country,' said Gordon Dix, a physics major from Chicago who will be participating in the Salt Lake concert this year.
This will be Dix's first time performing in the Utah TubaChristmas concert, but he has participated in four TubaChristmas concerts back home.
'It's a different kind of Christmas music,' said Eliza Chiu, 20, a junior from Falls Church, Va., majoring in music education. 'When you have that many low instruments together, it makes your chest rumble. The bass is so powerful.'
Chiu will perform in the Utah TubaChristmas concert for the third straight year this season. In those years, she's seen a lot of the performers' humorous antics.
'It's hilarious,' she said. 'Last year, there was this guy who had a train set up on his tuba. And have you seen Dr. Seuss with all those wacky instruments? There was this other guy who made one of those out of his tuba -- he unwound his tubing somehow without kinking it or breaking any seals.'
Did it still sound like a tuba?
'Sort of,' she said.
TubaChristmas concerts are full of traditions that make it fun for all involved.
'One of the coolest things they'll do is find the youngest and oldest players -- usually they're around 7 years old and 80 years old,' Dix said.
Usually relegated to the back row of the band or orchestra, TubaChristmas is a tuba player's chance to shine, according to Steve Call, BYU School of Music faculty member and the event's organizer.
'I've been doing it for 19 years,' Call said. 'I get all the good tuba players and euphonium players together, we rehearse a bit and we give a concert. Music lovers seem to always be surprised that the music produced by so many large brass instruments is not loud or harsh, but is rich, warm and engulfing.'
Keeping with the tradition of this festive event, the concert will entertain, surprise and provide a musical high point for the holiday season, Call said.
Admission to the concert is free.