The crowd that gathered for the TubaChristmas performance Friday evening at Blacksburg’s Winter Lights Festival was more than familiar with the music they heard. What many of them may have never heard before was the way those Christmas carols and songs were played.
What they heard was an “orchestra” of some 35 musicians who played tubas, sousaphones, euphoniums, half-tubas and baritones. Not a woodwind, string or percussion instrument in the bunch.
The musicians were volunteers from the community, including high school and Virginia Tech students, who take part in TubaChristmas for the sheer fun of it and the chance to play. Many of them kept their heads warm with Merry TubaChristmas caps. They rehearsed for an hour, grabbed some pizza and hot chocolate and cranked up their brass instruments under the direction of Derek Shapiro, who teaches conducting at Virginia Tech and is the conductor of VT’s wind ensemble.
Those Merry TubaChristmas hats were available for sale as were music sheets of “Carols for a Merry TubaChristmas and commemorative buttons.
TubaChristmas has become something of a phemonanon since it was created in 1974. TubaChristmas concerts will be presented this season in more than 250 cities and in several foreign countries.
