TubaChristmas Moving to Temporary New Home at UA's JAR Arena on Dec. 8

Akron, Ohio, Nov. 15, 2001 TubaChristmas, an Akron holiday tradition, is moving to a temporary new home this year at The University of Akron's James A. Rhodes (JAR) Arena for a single performance at noon on Saturday, Dec. 8.



This year's concert is free and open to the public as a holiday gift to the community from The University of Akron's Department of Athletics and School of Music. The front-entrance doors of the JAR Arena will open at 11 a.m.



TubaChristmas is a magical, musical event featuring more than 500 tubas decorated with tinsel, garlands and lights. The massed musicians play favorite Christmas carols and the audience sings along.



Tucker Jolly, a music professor at The University of Akron, will conduct the event that he founded 23 years ago. He will be joined by several special guests, including Zippy, the UA mascot.



Knowing that he needed a temporary change of venue because of the renovation of the Akron Civic Theatre, the home of TubaChristmas for many years, Jolly enlisted support from The University of Akron to move the event to campus.



The JAR Arena is at the corner of Carroll and S. Union streets on the UA campus. Free parking is available in nearby surface lots and at the newly constructed East Campus Parking Deck. Accessible from Route 8, the parking deck is bordered by Buchtel Avenue and Spicer and Carroll streets.



In an interesting turn-about, Akron's TubaChristmas is free for the audience while the musicians pay a $5 registration fee to participate. Low-brass musicians who want to play can register on the day of the performance at the JAR Arena between 8:30 and 9:30 a.m. and should plan to rehearse from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.



Harvey Phillips, now professor emeritus of tuba at Indiana University, led the first TubaChristmas in 1974 at Rockefeller Center in New York City. He sought to demonstrate the beautiful and mellow sound that a mass ensemble of tubas, sousaphones, baritones and euphoniums can make, while providing a festive opportunity for his fellow low brass players to celebrate the season with the community. He dedicated the performance in memory of William J. Bell, his mentor and a renowned tuba virtuoso.



Tucker Jolly joined UA's music faculty in 1980, and began Akron's own version of TubaChristmas in December of that same year. The first performance was held outside on the Cascade Plaza with 55 musicians. Quickly attracting hundreds of musicians and becoming a popular family tradition, the event moved indoors to Quaker Square for the next three performances, spent the fifth year in the lobby of E.J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall, and expanded to fill the Akron Civic Theatre starting in 1985. In recent years the event has drawn capacity crowds.



For more information call Tucker Jolly at 330-972-6641.