Tuba top brass in Octubafest

By MICHAEL PATRICK WELCH

© St. Petersburg Times, published October 27, 2000

TAMPA -- Youngsters sit in front of their TVs watching rock stars and rappers and pining for a life of fame and fortune. Then how does one get sucked into playing tuba?

[Times photo: Chris Schneider] Senior Bruce Herrmann, a music education major, finds a tree-shaded spot to practice for a studio recital recently on the USF campus in Tampa.

"When I was a kid, the band director and the school principal . . . talked me into it because they needed a tuba player and they knew my parents were suckers," says University of South Florida's tuba professor, Jay Hunsberger. "The school had just bought this brand new tuba and it was shiny and beautiful. It was bigger than I was and I was always falling down the stairs with it and after three years it looked like it'd been thrown out of an airplane."

Who knew that in the year 2000 that Hunsberger, 35, would be championing the underdog instrument at USF's first-ever tuba festival: Octubafest?

The tuba, a relatively new instrument created in the the early 1800s, has been marginalized to marching fields and German bands. Tuba players were excluded from the orchestral spotlight before 1950 and haven't found much of a niche since. However, "in the second half of the 20th century tuba players have searched out composers to compose solo pieces for the instrument." Hunsberger says.

Octubafest will see the tuba in a rare light.

The first evening will feature Gail Robertson on tuba and euphonium ("It's like a baby tuba," Hunsberger says), playing standard works for tuba as well as jazz. What does jazz tuba sound like, you ask? "It sounds awesome believe it or not," Hunsberger says. "People expect "oompah' and loud obnoxious sounds . . . but the tuba has a very vocal aspect. Mellow melodic capacity . . . It sounds like someone singing."

Sunday night is HEAVY METAL night, featuring the surprisingly large contingent of USF's music students majoring in tuba.

The students will play tuba and euphonium versions of recognizable compositions by Wilder, Hindesmith and Bach on 13 tubas at the same time. Heavy.

The series concludes with Hunsberger, who also serves as principle tuba for the Florida West Coast Symphony Orchestra in Sarasota, and friends playing original tuba songs, as well as transcribed pieces originally written for other instruments.

If you go

Octubafest is today at the University Theater 2, and Sunday and Monday at the Music Recital Hall. The cost Friday and Monday is $4 ($3 for students and seniors); the show is free Sunday. Call (813) 974-2323.

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