TubaChristmas!

If you've been following our adventures since last year, you'll know that last year's TubaChristmas trip was a total bust.  We got to Philly only to be told that a huge blizzard was on its way and that we had better hightail it back to our home in Northeast PA before it hit. Which we did. Not so much fun although we did get to see Macy's downtown in its Christmas splendor.

This year was much better. We made it to Binghamton, New York for their TubaChristmas. In the photo, Michael waits patiently for the event to start. Unlike the TubaChristmas in Dallas, this one has no rehearsal. We found this out after we had gotten there an hour and fifteen minutes early.

So folks arrived sporadically and just sat around noodling for a very long time. A rather exciting sound in a reverberative place like a mall.

Here's most of the group. I think there must have been about 70 players there. Not anywhere as big as the Dallas, Texas one in which hundreds participate, but the sound was so much cleaner and more musical. I heard lots of lovely harmony that got lost in the huge crowd in Dallas. The conductor even got nice dynamics and tempo changes from this group. In Dallas, the conductor brings down the stick and hopes that everyone finishes up together.

 Michael with his Boosey and Hawkes euphonium. It is a very large horn compared to regular baritone horns but after watching him play his enormous Holton tuba in the Hazleton band, this beauty looks like a baby.

And a picture of me. I am the family photographer and I've decided to insist on one picture of me at every event just to prove that I do indeed exist. Thanks to MF for the cool Christmas scarf she gave me for my birthday. (She probably doesn't remember but she also gave me the Christmas turtleneck several Christmases ago. We could also talk about the watch which Mom and Dad gave me twenty-one birthdays ago, but let's not go there.)

All in all, a very fun time and an integral part of Denney Christmas celebrations.