MarkitaMoore conducts Merry TubaChirtmas-Detroit ensemble in 2014.
2016 PRESS RELEASE
CENTRAL UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
23 E. Adams Avenue, Detroit, MI 48226
313-965-5422
For More Information: Call coordinator Jim Bull at 313-928-2950 or email him at [email protected], or text to 313-855-7894.
Central United Methodist Church Presents:
MERRY TUBACHRISTMASâ, Detroit
12 noon Saturday December 17, 2016
General Public: free admission
When you think of tubas if you just think of the “oompah pah pah” background sound, think again as tubas fill the chancel in Central’s sanctuary and play a full concert of Christmas carols and other holiday tunes arranged so that tubas, play every part, including the melody!!! Celebrate the Christmas season and tuba virtuosity. Merry TubaChristmasesâ which are held all over the world. The first one was held in New York City at Rockfeller Center’s ice rink in 1974. This the 43rdh anniversary of TubaChristmasâ worldwide (1974-2013), and this season will mark the seventh annual Merry TubaChristmasâ in Detroit. It has now become an annual Detroit tradition! This free concert will be presented at 12 noon on Saturday December 17 at Central United Methodist Church, 23 E. Adams (at Woodward and right next to Comerica Park). Parking is free as well (tell the attendant you are there for Merry TubaChristmas). A free-will offering will be taken to help support the church’s homeless ministry called N.O.A.H. (Networking, Organizing, and Advocacy for the Homeless).
Created by the late Harvey Phillips, MERRY TUBACHRISTMAS 2016 concerts will be presented in over 250 cities throughout the United States and in several foreign countries. Phillips was inspired to create TUBACHRISTMAS as an annual event honoring his teacher, the late great tubist William J. Bell (born on Christmas Day 1902). Every Christmas season tuba and euphonium players of all ages from specific geographic areas, gather to pay respect through William J. Bell - to all the great artists/teachers who represent their heritage. Every TUBACHRISTMAS performance features traditional Christmas carols especially arranged (for the first TUBACHRISTMAS, December 22, 1974 on “The Rink at Rockefeller Center”) by American composer Alec Wilder (died Christmas Eve 1980). Through Wilder,
TUBACHRISTMAS concerts pay grateful tribute to composers who have embraced these noble instruments with solo and ensemble compositions. Depending on the population of any given geographic area, TUBACHRISTMAS ensembles may attract multiples of 100 participants aged 8 to over 90 years! The warm, rich organ-like sound of the tuba-euphonium choir has won the ears and hearts of every audience. It is no wonder that TUBACHRISTMAShas become an established Christmas tradition in cities throughout the world. TUBACHRISTMAS is a property and trademark of the HARVEY PHILLIPS FOUNDATION in Bloomington, IN. Central United Methodist Church is presenting this concert under an agreement with the Phillips Foundation to be the local official sponsor of this annual event.
G.R. Davis who came up from Nashville for the first four years of Merry TubaChristmas-Detroit to conduct for us turned over his baton three years ago to Detroit’s own Markita Moore. So this will be Markita’s third year conducting for us. A Detroit native and versatile artist, Markita wears many musical hats around town including conductor, teacher, musician, and songwriter. She began her music education early, with trumpet in the fifth grade, and majored in it all way through Wayne State University, where she earned her BA in Instrumental Music Education. She currently teaches music and directs the choir at University Prep Science and Math High School in Detroit. She has also conducted the Wayne State Concert Band, the Faculty Orchestra at the New England Music Camp, and is currently pursuing her Master of Arts degree in conducting. While maintaining her life-long relationship with the trumpet by performing with the dynamic and popular Detroit Party Marching Band, Markita has also learned electric bass, drums, guitar, and piano along her musical journey and leads a four-piece experimental rock band called Elemental Meaning. She is well versed as singer-songwriter, using the acoustic guitar and her sultry voice to conjure up music reminiscent of Lizz Wright and Michael Hedges. Markita is a member of several music organizations including the Michigan Music Educators Association, the National Association for Music Educators, College Band Directors’ National Association, and the American Choral Directors’ Association. We hope many will come out December 17 to welcome Markita back to the Merry TubaChristmas-Detroit’s conductor’s podium.
This year we will have a special instrumentalist and guest conductor in Dennis Nulty, Principal Tubist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Another guest conductor for one number will be Daniel Dillingham, Central’s new organist and minister of music. He will also play a piece on the 70 ranks Skinner organ, and one of the largest organs in Detroit: the tubas may join the organ later on this pieces as well. He may also perform a tuba solo or small ensemble piece as well is very likely.
The Detroit Merry TubaChristmas concert, like all such concerts around the world, is offered free of charge. Parking is free as well—patrons should tell the parking lot attendant they are coming for Merry TubaChristmasâ. Audience seating is first come, first serve.
A free-will offering will be taken to support the NOAH Community Center (Networking, Organizing, Advocating for the Homeless), Central’s project that serves the homeless. N.O.A.H. proves meals four days per week; a place to stay warm; a family where all are accepted; “Art and Soul” which involves those who wish in ceramics, painting and other visual arts leading to exhibitions in established galleries; opportunities to get involved in the performing arts; social workers to help individuals get jobs and move into houses or apartments; a barber; counseling including on domestic violence; and a medical clinic. N.O.A.H. used to serve lunch only two days per week, but during the extreme cold three years ago of the Winter Polar Vortex, it was decided to open the church to the homeless for meals and warmth four days per week. And the dining room has a new name, the N.O.A.H Community Center. The number of meals served has quadrupled since then. Central’s gospel musician, Bobbi Thompson who also works with the N.O.A.H. program will play piano and sing during the offering to give the tubist a little rest.
We encourage tuba players of all ages and abilities to perform in this concert. If you know a tuba player or band director, who, of course, will have tuba players in their band, please let them know and spread the word. Tuba players pay $10 each to participate which goes to the Phillips foundation and includes a “Tuba Christmas 2017” button. This registration fee will be waived for Detroit Public School students. Tuba players must also purchase the book of specially arranged Tuba Christmas music for $20 (it can be used every year). That fee is waived for Detroit Public School students as well. It can be purchased on-line at www.tubachristmas.com and will be on sale that day. TubaChristmas stocking caps, scarves, headbands, and recordings. will be available for purchase as well. Registration for tuba players is at 9 a.m. with rehearsal commencing at 9:30 a.m. For more information, photos, and video clips visit our website at http://tubachristmasdetroit.weebly.com or our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/tubachristmasdetroit. You may also want to visit the Harvey Phillips Foundation webpage to learn about the international scope of the program at www.tubachristmas.com.
Below are excerpts from a New York Times article on the passing of Harvey Phillips in 2010.
Harvey Phillips and Tuba Christmas
Above: Harvey Phillips
The tradition began in 1974, the brainchild of Harvey Phillips, a musician called the Heifetz of the tuba. In his time he was the instrument’s chief evangelist, the inspirer of a vast solo repertory, a mentor to generations of players and, more simply, Mr. Tuba.
Most tuba players agree that if their unwieldy instrument has shed any of the bad associations that have clung to it —good for little more than the “oom” in the oom-pah-pah — it is largely thanks to Mr. Phillips’s efforts. He waged a lifelong campaign to improve the tuba’s image. Mr. Phillips died on October 20, 2010, at his home, Tubaranch, in Bloomington, Ind. He was 80 and had Parkinson’s disease.
Like many towering exponents of a musical instrument, Mr. Phillips left a legacy of 200 solo and chamber pieces, students and students of students. But even more, he bequeathed an entire culture of tuba-ism: an industry of TubaChristmases (252 cities last year) and tuba mini-festivals, mainly at universities, called Octubafests.
Harvey Phillips was born on Dec. 2, 1929 in an Aurora, Mo. After graduating, Mr. Phillips took a summer job playing tuba with the King Bros. Circus, attended the University of Missouri and then joined the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, the pinnacle of circus bands. On a circus trip to New York, he met William Bell, the tuba player of the New York Philharmonic. Mr. Bell soon arranged for him to study at the Juilliard School and become his pupil. Mr. Phillips spent two years in the United States Army Field Band but returned to New York playing regularly with the New York City Opera and New York City Ballet orchestras. In 1954 he helped found the New York Brass Quintet. The combination (two trumpets, French horn, trombone and tuba) was not common at that time and became a boon for tuba players. Mr. Phillips also played jazz, performing in clubs and recital halls. In 1975 he played five recitals at Carnegie Recital Hall in nine days.
Writing in The New York Times in 1980, the music critic Peter G. Davis said first-time listeners to Mr. Phillips “could scarcely fail to be impressed, and probably not a little astonished, by the instrument’s versatility and tonal variety, its ability to spin a soft and sweetly lyrical melodic line, to dance lightly and agilely over its entire bass range, and to bellow forth with dramatic power when the occasion demands.”
In 1971 Mr. Phillips joined the faculty of Indiana University. He retired in 1994.
In his tireless efforts to raise the tuba’s profile as well as to honor Mr. Bell, his teacher, Mr. Phillips — perhaps touched by the showmanship of his circus past — decided to gather tuba players for a special holiday concert in Rockefeller Center. (Mr. Bell was born on Christmas Day, 1902.)
He called an official there with the suggestion. “The phone went silent,” he later recounted. “So I gave the man some unlisted telephone numbers of friends of mine.” They included Stokowski, Leonard Bernstein, André Kostelanetz and Morton Gould. “He called me back in about an hour and said, ‘I’ve spoken with your friends, and you can have anything you want.’ ” The Tuba Christmas extravaganzas took off. Volunteers hold them around the country under the auspices of the Harvey Phillips Foundation. Sousaphones and euphoniums are also welcome. At TubaChristmas, the musicians play “Silent Night” in honor of their fellows who have died, Mrs. Phillips said. This year when tuba players gather again at the skating rink, and at Tuba Christmas concerts everywhere, the carol will be played in Mr. Phillips’s memory. (This is a partial reprint of New York Times article of October 24, 2010).
A book about Phillips has also been published which offers more information:
Phillips, Harvey. 2012. Mr. Tuba (an autobiography). Bloomington, IN: Indian University Press. (published posthumously).
(END)
23 E. Adams Avenue, Detroit, MI 48226
313-965-5422
For More Information: Call coordinator Jim Bull at 313-928-2950 or email him at [email protected], or text to 313-855-7894.
Central United Methodist Church Presents:
MERRY TUBACHRISTMASâ, Detroit
12 noon Saturday December 17, 2016
General Public: free admission
When you think of tubas if you just think of the “oompah pah pah” background sound, think again as tubas fill the chancel in Central’s sanctuary and play a full concert of Christmas carols and other holiday tunes arranged so that tubas, play every part, including the melody!!! Celebrate the Christmas season and tuba virtuosity. Merry TubaChristmasesâ which are held all over the world. The first one was held in New York City at Rockfeller Center’s ice rink in 1974. This the 43rdh anniversary of TubaChristmasâ worldwide (1974-2013), and this season will mark the seventh annual Merry TubaChristmasâ in Detroit. It has now become an annual Detroit tradition! This free concert will be presented at 12 noon on Saturday December 17 at Central United Methodist Church, 23 E. Adams (at Woodward and right next to Comerica Park). Parking is free as well (tell the attendant you are there for Merry TubaChristmas). A free-will offering will be taken to help support the church’s homeless ministry called N.O.A.H. (Networking, Organizing, and Advocacy for the Homeless).
Created by the late Harvey Phillips, MERRY TUBACHRISTMAS 2016 concerts will be presented in over 250 cities throughout the United States and in several foreign countries. Phillips was inspired to create TUBACHRISTMAS as an annual event honoring his teacher, the late great tubist William J. Bell (born on Christmas Day 1902). Every Christmas season tuba and euphonium players of all ages from specific geographic areas, gather to pay respect through William J. Bell - to all the great artists/teachers who represent their heritage. Every TUBACHRISTMAS performance features traditional Christmas carols especially arranged (for the first TUBACHRISTMAS, December 22, 1974 on “The Rink at Rockefeller Center”) by American composer Alec Wilder (died Christmas Eve 1980). Through Wilder,
TUBACHRISTMAS concerts pay grateful tribute to composers who have embraced these noble instruments with solo and ensemble compositions. Depending on the population of any given geographic area, TUBACHRISTMAS ensembles may attract multiples of 100 participants aged 8 to over 90 years! The warm, rich organ-like sound of the tuba-euphonium choir has won the ears and hearts of every audience. It is no wonder that TUBACHRISTMAShas become an established Christmas tradition in cities throughout the world. TUBACHRISTMAS is a property and trademark of the HARVEY PHILLIPS FOUNDATION in Bloomington, IN. Central United Methodist Church is presenting this concert under an agreement with the Phillips Foundation to be the local official sponsor of this annual event.
G.R. Davis who came up from Nashville for the first four years of Merry TubaChristmas-Detroit to conduct for us turned over his baton three years ago to Detroit’s own Markita Moore. So this will be Markita’s third year conducting for us. A Detroit native and versatile artist, Markita wears many musical hats around town including conductor, teacher, musician, and songwriter. She began her music education early, with trumpet in the fifth grade, and majored in it all way through Wayne State University, where she earned her BA in Instrumental Music Education. She currently teaches music and directs the choir at University Prep Science and Math High School in Detroit. She has also conducted the Wayne State Concert Band, the Faculty Orchestra at the New England Music Camp, and is currently pursuing her Master of Arts degree in conducting. While maintaining her life-long relationship with the trumpet by performing with the dynamic and popular Detroit Party Marching Band, Markita has also learned electric bass, drums, guitar, and piano along her musical journey and leads a four-piece experimental rock band called Elemental Meaning. She is well versed as singer-songwriter, using the acoustic guitar and her sultry voice to conjure up music reminiscent of Lizz Wright and Michael Hedges. Markita is a member of several music organizations including the Michigan Music Educators Association, the National Association for Music Educators, College Band Directors’ National Association, and the American Choral Directors’ Association. We hope many will come out December 17 to welcome Markita back to the Merry TubaChristmas-Detroit’s conductor’s podium.
This year we will have a special instrumentalist and guest conductor in Dennis Nulty, Principal Tubist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Another guest conductor for one number will be Daniel Dillingham, Central’s new organist and minister of music. He will also play a piece on the 70 ranks Skinner organ, and one of the largest organs in Detroit: the tubas may join the organ later on this pieces as well. He may also perform a tuba solo or small ensemble piece as well is very likely.
The Detroit Merry TubaChristmas concert, like all such concerts around the world, is offered free of charge. Parking is free as well—patrons should tell the parking lot attendant they are coming for Merry TubaChristmasâ. Audience seating is first come, first serve.
A free-will offering will be taken to support the NOAH Community Center (Networking, Organizing, Advocating for the Homeless), Central’s project that serves the homeless. N.O.A.H. proves meals four days per week; a place to stay warm; a family where all are accepted; “Art and Soul” which involves those who wish in ceramics, painting and other visual arts leading to exhibitions in established galleries; opportunities to get involved in the performing arts; social workers to help individuals get jobs and move into houses or apartments; a barber; counseling including on domestic violence; and a medical clinic. N.O.A.H. used to serve lunch only two days per week, but during the extreme cold three years ago of the Winter Polar Vortex, it was decided to open the church to the homeless for meals and warmth four days per week. And the dining room has a new name, the N.O.A.H Community Center. The number of meals served has quadrupled since then. Central’s gospel musician, Bobbi Thompson who also works with the N.O.A.H. program will play piano and sing during the offering to give the tubist a little rest.
We encourage tuba players of all ages and abilities to perform in this concert. If you know a tuba player or band director, who, of course, will have tuba players in their band, please let them know and spread the word. Tuba players pay $10 each to participate which goes to the Phillips foundation and includes a “Tuba Christmas 2017” button. This registration fee will be waived for Detroit Public School students. Tuba players must also purchase the book of specially arranged Tuba Christmas music for $20 (it can be used every year). That fee is waived for Detroit Public School students as well. It can be purchased on-line at www.tubachristmas.com and will be on sale that day. TubaChristmas stocking caps, scarves, headbands, and recordings. will be available for purchase as well. Registration for tuba players is at 9 a.m. with rehearsal commencing at 9:30 a.m. For more information, photos, and video clips visit our website at http://tubachristmasdetroit.weebly.com or our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/tubachristmasdetroit. You may also want to visit the Harvey Phillips Foundation webpage to learn about the international scope of the program at www.tubachristmas.com.
Below are excerpts from a New York Times article on the passing of Harvey Phillips in 2010.
Harvey Phillips and Tuba Christmas
Above: Harvey Phillips
The tradition began in 1974, the brainchild of Harvey Phillips, a musician called the Heifetz of the tuba. In his time he was the instrument’s chief evangelist, the inspirer of a vast solo repertory, a mentor to generations of players and, more simply, Mr. Tuba.
Most tuba players agree that if their unwieldy instrument has shed any of the bad associations that have clung to it —good for little more than the “oom” in the oom-pah-pah — it is largely thanks to Mr. Phillips’s efforts. He waged a lifelong campaign to improve the tuba’s image. Mr. Phillips died on October 20, 2010, at his home, Tubaranch, in Bloomington, Ind. He was 80 and had Parkinson’s disease.
Like many towering exponents of a musical instrument, Mr. Phillips left a legacy of 200 solo and chamber pieces, students and students of students. But even more, he bequeathed an entire culture of tuba-ism: an industry of TubaChristmases (252 cities last year) and tuba mini-festivals, mainly at universities, called Octubafests.
Harvey Phillips was born on Dec. 2, 1929 in an Aurora, Mo. After graduating, Mr. Phillips took a summer job playing tuba with the King Bros. Circus, attended the University of Missouri and then joined the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, the pinnacle of circus bands. On a circus trip to New York, he met William Bell, the tuba player of the New York Philharmonic. Mr. Bell soon arranged for him to study at the Juilliard School and become his pupil. Mr. Phillips spent two years in the United States Army Field Band but returned to New York playing regularly with the New York City Opera and New York City Ballet orchestras. In 1954 he helped found the New York Brass Quintet. The combination (two trumpets, French horn, trombone and tuba) was not common at that time and became a boon for tuba players. Mr. Phillips also played jazz, performing in clubs and recital halls. In 1975 he played five recitals at Carnegie Recital Hall in nine days.
Writing in The New York Times in 1980, the music critic Peter G. Davis said first-time listeners to Mr. Phillips “could scarcely fail to be impressed, and probably not a little astonished, by the instrument’s versatility and tonal variety, its ability to spin a soft and sweetly lyrical melodic line, to dance lightly and agilely over its entire bass range, and to bellow forth with dramatic power when the occasion demands.”
In 1971 Mr. Phillips joined the faculty of Indiana University. He retired in 1994.
In his tireless efforts to raise the tuba’s profile as well as to honor Mr. Bell, his teacher, Mr. Phillips — perhaps touched by the showmanship of his circus past — decided to gather tuba players for a special holiday concert in Rockefeller Center. (Mr. Bell was born on Christmas Day, 1902.)
He called an official there with the suggestion. “The phone went silent,” he later recounted. “So I gave the man some unlisted telephone numbers of friends of mine.” They included Stokowski, Leonard Bernstein, André Kostelanetz and Morton Gould. “He called me back in about an hour and said, ‘I’ve spoken with your friends, and you can have anything you want.’ ” The Tuba Christmas extravaganzas took off. Volunteers hold them around the country under the auspices of the Harvey Phillips Foundation. Sousaphones and euphoniums are also welcome. At TubaChristmas, the musicians play “Silent Night” in honor of their fellows who have died, Mrs. Phillips said. This year when tuba players gather again at the skating rink, and at Tuba Christmas concerts everywhere, the carol will be played in Mr. Phillips’s memory. (This is a partial reprint of New York Times article of October 24, 2010).
A book about Phillips has also been published which offers more information:
Phillips, Harvey. 2012. Mr. Tuba (an autobiography). Bloomington, IN: Indian University Press. (published posthumously).
(END)