About 70 musicians came out to share some oom-pah-pah holiday spirit at the annual Naperville Tuba Christmas, held this past Saturday.
“Tuba Christmas is kind of the icing on the cake when people visit Naperville and they see events like Tuba Christmas, they want to come back,” said Tuba Christmas Director Dave Carroll.
Music since the 70’s
Since 1979, area tuba and euphonium players have been invited to come out to the event to play Christmas carols, in a special one-day concert. Registration, rehearsal, and the concert itself all take place within a few hour span on the morning of the actual show. It’s a tradition that’s not unique to Naperville.
“The first Tuba Christmas concert was held at Rockefeller Center at the ice rink in 1974. And today there are over 300 Tuba Christmas concerts all over the world,” said Carroll,”
Concert location for the Naperville version has varied from year to year. This time around, coordinators David Carroll, a band and music instructor at Naperville School District 203, and Ron Keller, Naperville Municipal Band Conductor, led the festive fun in front of the U.S. Bank in downtown Naperville.
“Some years we just play in front of the bank, and some years we play at the bank and then we go play at the mall at the Fox Valley Mall. This year we weren’t able to make that happen, but we’re hoping next year we’ll be able to play at the mall again. So we’ll play at both locations,” said Carroll.
Holiday Joy
Besides the seasonal sounds, festive decorations on both the instruments and the players helped add to the holiday fun.
“People are face to face with some real musicians that are that are here to spread joy and spread love and to just to see them engaged in what was going on today was really something special,” said Carroll,”
Naperville News 17 Patrick Codo reports.
