1. A totally indoor venue at Penn State Behrend. Nice stage and music stands provided.
2. Very well run and organized.
3. Not just one but several highly qualified conductors.
4. Excellent local news media coverage. Yes, you will see yourself on TV!
5. Fee includes lunch between rehearsal and concert, which consists of the BEST pizza you will ever have outside of a pizzeria! They make it at the college cafeteria and it is quite good.
6. Great participation from high school and college students! Some school districts brought their whole low brass sections by the bus load!
7. Both this year and last, a huge SRO audience!
This year featured something different. A local steel drum band played carols in the lobby before the concert. They were refreshingly different and quite good!
Although in Erie county, PA, Behrend is close to the NY line and so draws from NY state also. Also folks from Ohio and one lady came all the way from South Carolina!
The camaraderie was outstanding! TubaChristmas kind of reminds me of salmon returning to where they were hatched once a year for spawning. Not that there was any spawning going on!
But you get my point- all sorts of tuba and euphonium players, young and old, amateur and professional, all coming together once a year because of the one thing they have in common- the love of their instrument.I don’t know a lot about other TubaChristmases, but this one rocks!
