A Brief History of Tuba Bach
2006
Adriana, Gwen, Noah, and I had recently moved back to Big Rapids, Michigan – a great place to grow up when I was a kid, and figured it would be a great place for our kids to grow up, too. Came home after close to twenty years away going to college (CMU undergrad – Fire Up Chips!; MSU grad school, MM and DMA – go Green!), teaching college (Hope – go Fly High Dutchmen!; Albion – go Britons!; and North Carolina Central – Way to Go Eagles!) and performing around the U.S. and Canada. I had decided that I wanted to set aside my teaching career to focus on performing and composing (thanks Adriana for supporting!). So. Back in Big Rapids. Lots of familiar faces, lots of questions. “So, what do you do now?” “I play the tuba.” “No – I mean for a living?” (Nice) “Why would anyone want to just play oom-pahs for a living?” “No, no – the tuba really can do some amazing musical things!” “Really? (disbelief) Don’t you do anything else?” “I also play the euphonium.” “What’s a euphonium?” (Nice) “Are you the cartoonist?” “No, that’s my brother.” (Jef Mallett, creator of the nationally syndicated comic strip Frazz) “Are you the famous one?” “Nope – pretty sure you’re still talking about Jef.” And so on and so forth. I had also recently acquired a new tuba that had a particular resonance that I was quite pleased with, and I had my mind set on a recording project of the Bach solo cello suites.
Lightbulb Moment #1: If I were to perform the six cello suites in concert, people would maybe get an idea of what I do.
Lightbulb moment #2: Pretty sure no one is going to want to sit through two-plus hours of solo tuba music (more on that in August of 2015!).
Lightbulb moment #3: If I played six concerts, and started each one with a cello suite, then continued playing with some of my friends from around the country that I’d been playing with, then people would get an even better idea of what I do. So, that’s exactly what happened – six weeks of concerts, playing the tuba and euphonium in a variety of chamber music settings. Figured I’d call it Tuba Bach because, well, that’s what it was all based on. And I figured that I’d present them with no admission charge, because I didn’t want anybody to not come because they couldn’t afford it (I remember very distinctly two concerts that I attended when I was a kid – one with the Canadian Brass, one with the National Brass Band of New Zealand. Both were free – thank you FSU – and I don’t know that I would’ve / could’ve gone to either if there would have been an admission cost. I do know that both of those concerts pointed me towards what I do now, and I want to make sure that opportunity is there for the next kid who needs to be pointed that way).
2024
Nineteen seasons now, and still doing pretty much the same thing! A couple of things have changed (not playing Bach necessarily every concert, performing events throughout the year in addition to six weeks in the fall, collaborating with the Michigan State University College of Music to bring students and faculty to Big Rapids all year long, adding live-streaming to our concert options to name a few), but essentially still the same basic format — world-class musicians coming to Big Rapids, I get to hang out and play great music with each one of them, and still no admission fee to attend Tuba Bach concerts. All of it has been wonderful, and I hesitate to point out anything specific for fear of seeming like those not listed aren’t as great somehow. Not true. Nevertheless, in no particular order, some highlights: Over the past 17 years, hundreds of musicians have come to our community to take part in the festival, and hundreds more from our own community – especially students – have had the opportunity to be on stage right along with some of those amazing performers; I got to perform with Steve Bailey and Victor Wooten!; Establishing Tuba Bach as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in 2012 – with an awesome board of directors; staging Jesus Christ Superstar in 2014; collaborating with the amazing Alvin Waddles for 14 years and counting; setting a world record for the longest continuous solo tuba concert (30+ hours!) in 2015; watching our children grow up into being a world-class artist and a world-class performer and composer – and both grow up into world-class members of society; four recording projects completed so far – one with Harlem Quartet, one with Rod and Alvin, one with Alvin, Marion and Dave, and the most recent with Alvin, Dominic and Noah; I got to wear lederhosen and play an alphorn!; closing in on 25 years now with Adriana – couldn’t ask for better; playing a concert with Fareed Haque in 2013 the day after surgery – I honestly don’t remember a thing about it!; The McLains – most awesome people in the world; And so is Mike Stevens!; working with Eisenhower Dance Ensemble – twice!; side by side with SNL’s “Bones” Malone – how cool – not likely to happen again, but man, was that ever fun!; Heywood Banks – now that’s just plain goofy (twice); the whole Grand Rapids Symphony on the Tuba Bach stage; celebrating the circus (complete with circus band and aerialists!); commissioning lots of new music; a concert with my cousin and amazing operatic soprano Caroline Worra; Marco Granados, Jorge Glem, Rodner Padilla and Manuel Rangel – thank you Venezuela for sharing!; a Tex-Mex blast with Grammy winners Flor de Toloache and the one and only Sunny Sauceda; a prog rock salute to Kansas – with tubas!; continued collaborations with Grammy-winning trombonist Mike Dease; surviving a pandemic and figuring out how to live-stream concerts; settling in to our new home – Immanuel Lutheran Church – with a new performance shell and a magnificent Mason & Hamlin concert grand piano (thanks to Reeder Pianos of Lansing); and so much more….
And beyond
Very much looking forward to many more years of Tuba Bach to come – bring it on! (And maybe someday I’ll finally get to that recording project of the Bach cello suites. After all, they started all of this!)