2nd Annual Tuba Christmas performance to Monterey

About 900 guests were in attendance at the Golden State Theatre in Monterey Sunday afternoon to see more than 50 musicians perform for free at the 2nd Annual Tuba Christmas.

“You are sort of nervous, but excited at the same time that you get to play,” said 10-year-old Jack Uchida-Dohrmann, the youngest musician to perform at Monterey’s Tuba Christmas.

The idea behind Tuba Christmas is simple: a bunch of tuba and euphonium players come together for a free concert performing holiday classics.

“I’ve been to a bunch of these and this is by far the nicest, most friendly, first class operation I’ve been to,” said Bill Hrnjak, a musician who has been to more than a dozen Tuba Christmases.

It’s popular worldwide, with Monterey’s concert attracting about 50 players of all skill levels and ages.

“What I think is really fun about it is that you get to listen to the music and have this entire crowd watching it,” said Uchida-Dohrmann.

About 900 people attended the concert. According to organizers, only about 150 showed up for the first year of the show in Monterey last year.

“We are thrilled that people have been happily drawn to the concept of tubas,” said Rebecca Perry co-coordinator of the event.

The idea of Tuba Christmas dates back to 1974 when one tuba player wanted to pay homage to his tuba teacher who was born on Christmas Day.

“So in 1974 over a 100 tubas showed up on the ice skating rink of Rockefeller Center and everyone had such a good time they said let’s keep this up,” said Perry.

The Monterey show really is more than just a performance. Veteran conductor Steve Iwata stopped at times to give history lessons and talk about the instruments. But even he admits sometimes people can be skeptical at first about hearing 50 tubas playing at once.

“And once they hear what we can play and how we play it’s like a big organ sound,” said Iwata.