Wenatchee Tubadours

What do you get when a scientist, a teacher, a pilot, and a student get together? You get the Wenatchee Tubadours!

Formed in 2018, the group of four euphonium and tuba players enjoy entertaining audiences at assisted living facilities, churches, backyard BBQs, and Pybus Market. Their collection of unconventional tuba tunes - everything from Bach to the Beatles, Burt Bacharach to the Beach Boys and occasionally a polka - are arranged for the low brass quartet by Glenn Kelly who plays the lead euphonium. Glenn, the founder of the group, is a retired music teacher, and is a well known Wenatchee and Leavenworth musician.

The other members of the group include the pilot, Dale Devereaux, his daughter Rebecca Devereaux, the student, and John VanderSchalie, who is retired from working in a laboratory at the WSU Veterinary School. When Rebecca went off to college at Whitworth University (with the help of a tuba scholarship), Paul Bergman, a retired school principal, was recruited to join the group to fill her part. Rebecca still plays with the guys when she is home on her college breaks.

Tubas and euphoniums are used by bands and orchestras to fill in the low range parts of the musical score. The larger tuba typically covers the lowest notes while the euphonium plays at a slightly higher pitch. Tubas are designed to be played while seated. High school and college bands love using the sousaphone, a wearable tuba, for marching and playing pep music.

Locally, the German band in Leavenworth uses euphoniums and tubas to play the traditional oompah sound of Tyrolean polkas. When tubas are used as primary instruments instead of supporting instruments, they produce pleasing mellow voices. The Tubadours usually play with three euphoniums and one tuba which makes for a nice four part blend.

Glenn’s gift for arranging music is at the heart of the Tubadours’ unique sound. Whatever the musical genre, be it classical or rock, sacred or secular, Glenn, whose university major was in music arranging, can create harmonies to fit the tuba range. He has given the Tubadours an eclectic repertoire of over 200 specially arranged songs that appeal to all audiences…unless the group plays school fight songs and you have Cougars and Huskies in the same room!

Over the years, the collection of music has grown along with the group’s friendship. Every practice brings new songs, musical challenges, and lots of laughter. Every performance in the community brings joy to the listeners and creates new Tubadours’ fans.

Here’s a list of just some of the composers and singers that Glenn has arranged music from for the Tubadours’ song collection: Gene Autry, Duke Ellington, John Williams, Tchaikovsky, John Philip Sousa, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Mozart, Count Basie, Scott Joplin, Herb Alpert, Roy Acuff, Hank Williams, Henry Mancini, Vivaldi, John Denver, George Gershwin, Glenn Miller, Leroy Anderson, George Frederick Handel, Francis Scott Key, Elvis Presley, Neil Diamond…and the list goes on and on!

This article was published in The Good Life Magazine in May of 2022.

The Wenatchee Tubadours are now on Facebook! We will be using this page to update our groupies on upcoming performances. Follow us for more information.