Tuba Christmas Nashville

50 years of Tuba Christmas
First and most important, today would have been the 94th Birthday of Harvey Phillips. Happy Birthday in Heaven, Mr. Phillips, and keep on playing your great music!

I was a graduate student at Indiana University in 1974 when my tuba teacher, Professor Harvey Phillips, told me about his idea to have a large ensemble of tubas and euphoniums play Christmas carols under the famous Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. It sounded like a crazy idea, but Mr. Phillips often thought big, so I figured he could pull it off. As his graduate assistant, I was on a first name basis with him. Harvey told me Alec Wilder had arranged 18 carols for the concert, and Harvey wanted his students to do a sample concert to try out the arrangements in the town where IU is located, Bloomington, Indiana. Furthermore, he wanted all the students to wear Santa suits and to ferry us to the local courthouse lawn on a fire truck. We probably rented every Santa suit in town. I was in the group that played that very first Tuba Christmas concert wearing Santa suits. That was 50 years ago. Sunday, December 10 is the 50th anniversary of the first concert at Rockefeller Center, which featured over 300 players. They were not in Santa suits!

There were several reasons Harvey wanted to do the Tuba Christmas concert. The first reason was to honor William Bell, his tuba teacher from the 1950’s. Mr. Bell was Toscanini’s principal tuba in the NBC Symphony which was formed when Maestro Toscanini fled his homeland right before World War 2. That orchestra performed radio broadcasts from Studio 8H on the 8th floor of Rockefeller Center, a space now used by “Saturday Night Live”, and overlooking the TubaChristmas concert in from of the Christmas tree. Mr. Bell had a long and illustrious career. Starting at age 18 as principal tuba in John Philip Sousa’s touring band, he played in many professional bands and orchestras including the New York Philharmonic Orchestra before being becoming Professor of Tuba at Indiana University. He was one of the finest tuba players of his era. Harvey met Mr. Bell in the late 40’s when the two of them performed the show with Ringling Brothers Circus at Madison Square Garden. Harvey was invited to New York where he attended Julliard and studied with Mr. Bell. Soon Harvey was a very major player in the New York music scene.

A second reason for Tuba Christmas was to give players of all ages, including young and relatively inexperienced players, to perform alongside seasoned musicians. Usually there are not many tubas and euphoniums in an ensemble. An orchestra has only one tuba. The comradery between players is a wonderful experience for all of us.

A third and very important reason for Tuba Christmas is to make the audience aware of the beautiful sound and blend that a group of all tubas and euphoniums can make, and to heartily sing along with the horns. If you can't make it to New York, we hope you will join us at the Nashville concert on Tuesday, December 12, at First Baptist.

December is a special and relevant month to Tuba Christmas. Mr. Bell was born on Christmas day, 1902. Mr. Phillips was born on December 2, 1929. The arranger of the original 18 carols, Alec Wilder, passed away on Christmas Eve, 1980. Mr. Wilder lived for 50 years in the Algonquin Hotel, a few blocks from Rockefeller Center. He was known for composing many pieces of music for Tuba, especially for Harvey Phillips. We are sad that none of these three greats are still with us. We will play “Silent Night” which was Mr. Bell’s favorite. We are playing the carol in memory of William Bell, Harvey Phillips and Alec Wilder. Also, we play the carol in honor of many great musicians who have passed this year, and in memory of so many people who have been lost to wars and other violence this year. We invite you to think of those special to you who are no longer here as we play you sing this beautiful carol.

I hope you enjoy the attached pictures from the early days of TubaChristas even though they have faded with time. The ones in Santa suits are from the first performance of the TubaChristmas music at Monroe County Courthouse in Bloomington, Indiana, 1974 (directed by Mr. Phillips). The others are from the New York concert of 1977 where I went to listen and make pictures. Harvey is conducting the rehearsal from the tailgate of my 1972 Chevy pickup in the bowels under Radio City. Our guest conductor that year was Dr. Frederick Fennell who was famous as the conductor of the Eastman Wind Ensemble. We hope you have a Merry TubaChristmas!

Tuba Christmas Nashville will be on Tuesday, December 12 with one performance only at 11 am. The location is First Baptist Church at 7th and Broadway in downtown Nashville. Free parking will be available in the lot behind the church. Players may get information at tubachristmas.com. This is the 37th annual Tuba Christmas concert in Nashville and the 50th year of the New York Concert. We hope you can attend!

To the person who was looking for pictures from Tuba Christmas when we were at Green Hills Mall. I found some! I have lost your contact info. Please send me a message and I will get them to you.
GR Davis

Plan to come to Tuba Christmas in Nashville on Tuesday, December 13, 2022! Players can get details on tubachristmas.com. We are having 2 shows this year, at 11 am and 12:30 pm to make sure we can accommodate all the audience. We will be at First Baptist Nashville, 7th and Broadway. Admission is free and parking will be free in the lot behind the church. We normally play in the main sanctuary. However, due to renovations being done in that space, we will be in the temporary worship space in the building next door. There will be volunteers to meet you in the parking lot and direct you to the correct entrance. Players will unload in the underground tunnel as usual. Thanks for bearing with us on this temporary arrangement. This will be the 36th year of Tuba Christmas in Nashville!