Tubaforum gets a media shoutout regarding the Curtis Audition

[russiantuba]

I was reading an interesting article about the Curtis tuba audition process. https://www.phillymag.com/news/2024/05 ... 9MClosVlxf

Tubaforum gets a small shoutout.

[russiantuba]

Related to the article, if something like this would occur at any other school, there would be several ethics violations. I couldn’t fathom being at an audition being asked about the body frame and size of my parents (which I’m taller and have a much wider and taller torso than both of them)

When it’s Zhu’s turn, the judges ask him to fill his lungs and play with more force, seeming to suggest he’s too small for his instrument. Krzywicki asks about his parents’ size, pondering future growth. “I felt like their biggest concern may have been that I couldn’t put up enough sound,” Zhu explains to me.

[bloke]

I guess that's what would happen, but it's just as much a comment on postmodern wokeness than anything.

[Billy M.]

In Jacobs's biography, didn't his father have to get his weight up to be accepted at Curtis?

[tofu]

Related to the article, if something like this would occur at any other school, there would be several ethics violations. I couldn’t fathom being at an audition being asked about the body frame and size of my parents (which I’m taller and have a much wider and taller torso than both of them)

When it’s Zhu’s turn, the judges ask him to fill his lungs and play with more force, seeming to suggest he’s too small for his instrument. Krzywicki asks about his parents’ size, pondering future growth. “I felt like their biggest concern may have been that I couldn’t put up enough sound,” Zhu explains to me.

I guess without being there it’s hard to judge without context, tone and body language to really understand the gist of this. Especially in light of the fact that Mr Krzywicki’s replacement for his old seat in Philly is of slight stature. I saw her at a recital at NU not long after she got the Philly job and had a seat about 10 feet from her and about 6 feet above her and slightly behind her. Fascinating to watch how rapidly she was able to fully breath in and out to fill/expell the lungs & perhaps compensate for any lack of lung size. Certainly a top notch player highly skilled at supporting the group. Maybe Carol didn’t get the memo on size needed in order to be a tuba player.

[russiantuba]

Related to the article, if something like this would occur at any other school, there would be several ethics violations. I couldn’t fathom being at an audition being asked about the body frame and size of my parents (which I’m taller and have a much wider and taller torso than both of them)

When it’s Zhu’s turn, the judges ask him to fill his lungs and play with more force, seeming to suggest he’s too small for his instrument. Krzywicki asks about his parents’ size, pondering future growth. “I felt like their biggest concern may have been that I couldn’t put up enough sound,” Zhu explains to me.

I guess without being there it’s hard to judge without context, tone and body language to really understand the gist of this. Especially in light of the fact that Mr Krzywicki’s replacement for his old seat in Philly is of slight stature. I saw her at a recital at NU not long after she got the Philly job and had a seat about 10 feet from her and about 6 feet above her and slightly behind her. Fascinating to watch how rapidly she was able to fully breath in and out to fill/expell the lungs & perhaps compensate for any lack of lung size. Certainly a top notch player highly skilled at supporting the group. Maybe Carol didn’t get the memo on size needed in order to be a tuba player.

She studied with my DMA professor before studying with Fritz, and I was told she was always a solid player and would over-achieve. Though Curtis is not entirely linked with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Carol wasn’t invited to the first Philly audition where no winner was determined. If I recall correctly, she had advanced in Cleveland and other prominent national auditions. Krzywicki would not have been on the panel for the audition.

Jacobs had a lower vital capacity and was not a man of large physical stature from what I was told. Pedagogically speaking, I don’t think your vital capacity is as important as the efficiency of flow.

[bloke]

I don't think it's politically popular to remind everyone of this or to point out that Mr. Jacobs orchestral technique involved a lot of "front". In other words: attacks, and backing off afterwards. Trumpet player friends of mine who studied with him make a little bit of fun of it, but in a fond way and not in a mocking way by imitating his style while playing some trumpet excerpts and doing a lot of forte-pianos followed by softer volume level vibrato on sustained notes. They're the same ones who will imitate Herb Alpert when playing orchestral excerpts and do other things like that for a little bit of a chuckle...

...The point being that I tend to wonder if the reason that Mr. Jacobs sort of developed that unique style was to be able to make it through long pitches by only beginning those pitches at the marked dynamic level and then backing off. I realize that any criticism or pointing out of this or that in his playing is really frowned upon, and I'm not mocking him - but I'm just talking about what was, and it's pretty difficult to deny that what was, was.

[Mary Ann]

Given that's what I do -- start loud (or maybe I would call making the entrance "distinct") and then lighten up, the point being to make sure that the "note that is the indicator of the beat" can be heard, but then back off to be part of the harmony, I think it's to conserve air supply and is somewhat instinctive when you don't have a lot of air supply. I'll bet a lot of you do something similar if you are blasting the low part in Ride, without maybe even thinking about it; you don't play it like a cello's legato.

[bloke]

Given that's what I do -- start loud (or maybe I would call making the entrance "distinct") and then lighten up, the point being to make sure that the "note that is the indicator of the beat" can be heard, but then back off to be part of the harmony, I think it's to conserve air supply and is somewhat instinctive when you don't have a lot of air supply. I'll bet a lot of you do something similar if you are blasting the low part in Ride, without maybe even thinking about it; you don't play it like a cello's legato.

Likely, it was far more often - and for far more types of musical circumstances - than you do as you describe.

The stereotypical "European" hall (where there is tons of reverb) can cover quite a bit, and I personally react to high-reverb venues by playing softer and (yes) approaching written music as did Mr. Jacobs (per my description), but the Hall on Michigan Avenue in Chicago is not particularly reverberant, and his playing technique/style was quite apparent.

off on yet another tangent:
Even the limited length/strength of reverberation in a typical U.S. venue is enough whereby if there is a an fp - crescendo or an sffz-p - crescendo, clever tuba players have realized that they can "pop" the downbeat, use the reverberation to grab a quick/deep breath, and then sneak back in for a lungs-refreshed long sustained sound after the downbeat or (again) even offer a fairly long crescendo after the downbeat...

...A classic application of this (for tuba players who aren't gifted with gigantic lungs) is the death of Til - near the end of the Strauss tone poem.

[russiantuba]

To add on to what @bloke has mentioned (and confirmed by Jacobs students whom I studied under where articulation clarity was of utmost importance), many American conduxtors in mid-sized orchestras will have the entire brass hit it strong and back down to crescendo. I guess this is part of the “American orchestra sound”

[jonesbrass]

off on yet another tangent:
Even the limited length/strength of reverberation in a typical U.S. venue is enough whereby if there is a an fp - crescendo or an sffz-p - crescendo, clever tuba players have realized that they can "pop" the downbeat, use the reverberation to grab a quick/deep breath, and then sneak back in for a lungs-refreshed long sustained sound after the downbeat or (again) even offer a fairly long crescendo after the downbeat...

...A classic application of this (for tuba players who aren't gifted with gigantic lungs) is the death of Til - near the end of the Strauss tone poem.

This made me chuckle a lot . . . I do this and thought I was the only one . . . Trying to maximize my meager lung capacity for maximum effect.