Monday, December 10, 2012

tuba christmas

It's our yearly tradition to go on a musical Christmas date. It's usually an evening event with tickets purchased ahead of time. This year though, we changed things up a bit. We went to Portland's Tuba Christmas. It's held every year downtown at Pioneer Courthouse Square and I have wanted to go ever since I got married and moved out here. This was the year. {It also helped that it was free.}

Phil took the MAX to work and I met him at the parking garage. That, in and of itself, is a small miracle because I don't usually do downtown. So not a fan of driving downtown. We walked a couple blocks over and one of the first things that caught my eye were these funky little hats. Aren't those fun?
It was pretty packed out, but we managed to be on the left side of the tuba tent and we gradually squeezed our way forward as people left. There were all sorts of instruments, not just tubas: baritones, a bass French horn, and euphoniums too. From the first few notes of Adeste Fidelis, I knew this was going to be a pretty cool thing. They were loud and low and brassy!
The first announcement was that there were 267 instrumentalists there. They later changed it when more people showed up making the grand total 300! They played a lot of the traditional Christmas carols - which really surprised me because Portland is a little not-so-much-into-Jesus. There was caroling from the audience as well. They also played some fun songs like Rudolph and Let it Snow. The song that made me laugh was Carol of the Bells. Not your typical instruments to play that song!
There was a wide range of ages playing, from grade school kids all the way up to the winner - the oldest person was an 85 year old lady on baritone.

The University of Oregon marching band sent the big guys in the back. The conductor paused from Christmas music so they could play their fight song. Then the Oregon State fans got a chance to play their fight song too.

 
Last night I was browsing youtube and I saw this little video clip. It just so happens that we are in it! Phil's wearing a black and gray parka and I have a plum jacket on. You can see us at about the 17 second mark on the bottom right. We're standing on the side of the tent. Look for the boy in the green jacket with the yellow stripe and we're just above his hood!



3 comments:

Unknown said...

That is so much fun! Did you take the tree/ornament picture in your header? It's fantastic!!!

wendy said...

Thanks, Ker. Yes, I did take it. It's from last Christmas. It's the wreath on the front door.

Kellie said...

So glad you got to enjoy the music!