More Top Picks Best Usb C Cables
player ready...David Carroll remembers driving from New Lenox to Chicago in 1989 to attend his first TubaChristmas — a concert of tubas, sousaphones, baritone horns and euphoniums. He was just 16 years old.
For Carroll, hearing those first notes of all the low-pitch, brass instruments playing together was unlike anything he had ever heard.
“When people start playing together at the same time, it hits you,” he said. “Several times, I just had to stop and just listen because it was so amazing and so cool to hear.”
Now, more than 30 years later, Carroll is the coordinator for TubaChristmas Naperville, where every year he conducts about 80 tuba and euphonium players in Christmas carols like “Joy to the World,” “O Come Ye Faithful” and the crowd favorite, “Jingle Bells.”
For nearly every year since 1979, people of all ages have come to Naperville to play in the concert. It is one of hundreds held across the country and even around the world, with performances also taking place in Canada, Italy and Australia.
“When you get 80 or 90 tuba players and euphonium players together, it sounds like nothing else,” Carroll said. “It’s really unique.”
TubaChristmas was the brainchild of American tuba player Harvey Phillips. He created the event in honor of his teacher and mentor William J. Bell, who was born on Christmas Day, according to the Harvey Phillips Foundation. The first TubaChristmas concert was on Dec. 22, 1974, conducted at New York City’s Rockefeller Plaza Ice Rink by Paul Lavalle.
Ron Keller, longtime director of the Naperville Municipal Band, brought the event to Naperville in 1979, making it now one of the longest running TubaChristmas performances in the country, Carroll said.
“Ron was like the ultimate band cheerleader,” Carroll said. “He did everything to advertise, advocate for and promote the tuba and to promote music.”
Keller picked up the tuba when he was in third grade and had a storied career in music, playing in the circus at one point and teaching thousands of students to play music over his decades-long career.
“He knew Harvey Phillips, and he knew the people who organized this concert, and they came to him and said, ‘Hey, Ron, why aren’t you doing this?’” Carroll said. “And Ron said, ‘OK, I’ll do it.’ He didn’t need much convincing because that was just in his wheelhouse.”
Naperville’s first TubaChristmas concert was held outside of a U.S. Bank, but Keller would soon learn that holding it in the winter cold would pose challenges.
“My second year here, the band thermometer said it was 13 degrees. We tried to play outside,” according to a comment from Keller on TubaChristmas Naperville’s website. “There were only about 25 players that year. We played two numbers. During the second number, the valves froze up.”
When no one was able to play, they went inside the bank and had cookies. Keller would eventually work out a deal that allowed the performance to be held inside the Fox Valley Mall. They first performed there in 1981.
Carroll started co-conducting with Keller in 2018 and prior to that, he was a participant. He took it over from Keller in 2021, three years before Keller died.
Planning for TubaChristmas begins in July, Carroll said. He is responsible for securing the venues, setting up the dates, organizing the music and, of course, making sure everything goes smoothly on the day of the actual shows.
Musicians can pre-register ahead of time to participate, with many registering a day or two before the concerts takes place. Some travel from out of town to be part of it. This year, Carroll expects to see musicians from Arkansas, Iowa and Wisconsin.
While he tries to share the setlist ahead of time for people to practice individually, the musicians performing get one hour-long practice together on the morning of the scheduled concert.
Most of the performers are adults who have familiarity with the songs in the setlist, but there are also young kids who participate as well. The youngest tuba player expected this year is about 10 years old, Carroll said. The oldest are in their 70s.
“The younger kids, I tell them in the very beginning that I don’t expect them to play everything, play what they can, play what they know, and just enjoy the experience of being part of that group because there’s no sound like it,” Carroll said.
What makes that sound so unique, he said, is the lower register of the tubas and the euphoniums. Sound waves produced by the instruments are typically lower than what humans can create with their voices.
“It’s not part of our world normally,” Carroll said. “When you hear those low sounds, the sound waves will physically move you, like you can feel the floor shake when you hear 80 tuba players play. You feel it in your feet. You feel it in your gut.”
More Top Picks Sewing Machine
That’s not the case for a lot of instruments, he said, which is part of what it so special.
“It’s an ensemble where anyone who plays the instrument can come and join, regardless of your age or your experience,” Carroll said. “And there’s something very Christmassy about being inclusive and celebrating the season.”
Naperville’s two TubaChristmas concerts will be held Saturday. The first is from 10 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. on the south lawn at the U.S. Bank at 136 S. Washington St. and the second from noon to 12:45 p.m. in front of the Round 1 event area at the Fox Valley Mall on Route 59 in Aurora.