{"id":9642,"date":"2019-01-04T18:33:04","date_gmt":"2019-01-04T18:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=9642"},"modified":"2019-01-04T18:33:04","modified_gmt":"2019-01-04T18:33:04","slug":"stay-tuned-rgv-tuba-christmas-set-to-break-guinness-world-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=9642","title":{"rendered":"STAY TUNED: RGV Tuba Christmas Set to Break Guinness World Record"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Amanda A. Taylor<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

McALLEN, TEXAS \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0The soothing sounds of low brass filled the McAllen Convention Center on Dec. 2, as hundreds of guests gathered to enjoy a holiday tradition \u2013 the annual RGV Tuba Christmas.<\/div>\n
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The RGV tuba\/euphonium ensemble is one of the biggest in the nation and has become a holiday staple in the Valley. This year, the group is submitting paperwork to see if they can beat the Guinness World Record for most tubas\/euphoniums performing in one ensemble.<\/div>\n
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\u201cThe way the Guinness World Record works is they have a process of verification,\u201d said Scott Roeder, associate professor of tuba and euphonium in the UTRGV School of Music. \u201cNo one from Guinness is coming, but what they do is provide guidelines on how to submit data and different reports from people for verifications of how many people were there. You submit it and see if they accept it, basically.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Roeder is the co-organizer of the event, along with McAllen ISD Fine Arts Director Jim Egger. Roeder\u2019s tuba and ensemble UTRGV students volunteer each year by helping with setup and logistics, and perform at the event.<\/div>\n
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With more than 600 tubas and euphoniums ringing out in perfect harmony, the odds of beating the record this year look promising. The current record holder for most tubas in a performance clocks in at 502 tubists, for a Disneyland Tuba Christmas performance in 2007.<\/div>\n
According to Roeder, the RGV Tuba Christmas ensemble has beat those numbers the past three years, but the proper procedures weren\u2019t met to officially qualify for Guinness.<\/div>\n
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Photo: Paul Chouy\/UTRGV<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe broke (the record) last year, but we didn\u2019t know what the process was at the time so they (Guinness) wouldn\u2019t count it,\u201d Roeder said.<\/div>\n
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The group will find out later in 2019 if they\u2019ve beat the record.<\/div>\n
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Tuba Christmas is a series of nationwide concerts that run each year, typically seeing more than 150 concerts within 46 states. The first Tuba Christmas was held in 1974 atop the ice rink in New York City\u2019s Rockefeller Center to honor the late William Bell, a performer and teacher.<\/div>\n
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Harvey Phillips, a famous tubist, organized the event to honor Bell, his former teacher.\u00a0Bell was the world\u2019s greatest tubist, according to Arturo Toscanini, conductor of the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Each year, Bell\u2019s memory is kept alive by music, with performances kept close to Bell\u2019s birthday, Christmas Day.<\/div>\n
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Tuba Christmas also has been an effective way to get school children involved and passionate about music. Tuba Christmas has been ongoing in the Rio Grande Valley for about 30 years. Each year, school districts are invited to showcase their resident tubists, along with professional musicians and tuba enthusiasts. Some of the long-standing traditions for Tuba Christmas include performers decorating their instruments with holiday lights, bells and garland.<\/div>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s a very unique performance \u2013 to see this mass ensemble and people decorate their instruments with lights and everyone is surprised to hear how good it sounds,\u201d Roeder said. \u201cThat\u2019s the really unique thing about the RGV Tuba Christmas \u2013 I\u2019m not sure if there are any other Tuba Christmases that get that involved with the public-school band programs.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Many of the UTRGV students performing in Tuba Christmas remember sitting in the audience and listening to the impressive sound of hundreds of tubas and euphoniums in unison. Hearing classic holiday songs performed by tubists left a lasting impression on many.<\/div>\n
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\u201cThis is my last Tuba Christmas in the Valley, so it\u2019s bittersweet,\u201d said Edgar Ortiz, a Music Education major, as he\u2019s moving to Georgia after graduation. \u201cIt\u2019s just incredible, playing with over 500 tuba players \u2013 it\u2019s just this massive sound. It\u2019s a fun event to go to.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Scott Roeder, associate professor of tuba and euphonium in the UTRGV School of Music, conducts the annual RGV Tuba Christmas at the McAllen Convention Center on Dec. 2. Photo: Paul Chouy\/UTRGV<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Amanda A. Taylor McALLEN, TEXAS \u2013\u00a0The soothing sounds of low brass filled the McAllen Convention Center on Dec. 2, as hundreds of guests gathered to enjoy a holiday tradition \u2013 the annual RGV Tuba Christmas. The RGV tuba\/euphonium ensemble is one of the biggest in the nation and has become a holiday staple in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":9644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-valley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9642"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9645,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9642\/revisions\/9645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}