attn New England peeps: New Tuba-Euphonium Ensemble in Southeastern CT

[arpthark]

Hello everyone!

I will be leading the inaugural rehearsal of SECTuba: the Southeastern Connecticut Tuba-Euphonium Ensemble. This group is a brand new branch of the Noank-Mystic (CT) Community Band Ensembles initiative.

There will be an open reading session next Tuesday, 5/16/2023 from 7:00-8:30pm at the Groton Senior Center, 102 Newtown Rd, Groton, CT 06340.

We will be sight-reading a lot of pieces. Come on over, play some low notes, and get your feet wet in a tuba-euphonium ensemble!

If any tuba players proficiently play bass tuba (Eb or F), please also bring your bass tuba along. Everyone should also please bring a music stand.

This is just a reading session; no formal commitment is required to the group, but regular rehearsals will commence on Tuesday, June 6 at 7:00pm and will occur weekly thereafter. We would love to see you there after Memorial Day! There is an opportunity for us to perform at various local venues and as a featured group at Noank-Mystic Community Band concerts. Tell all your tuba-and-euphonium-loving friends!

Repertoire for the reading session will be chosen as follows (we will likely not get to all of it!)
Wabash Cannon Ball - trad., arr. Garrett
Shenandoah - trad., arr. Taylor
Got to Get You Into My Life - Lennon/McCartney, arr. Taylor
Here, There and Everywhere - Lennon/McCartney, arr. Taylor
Other various Beatles and pop tunes - arr. Taylor
Chorale: Aus tiefer Not - Walter, arr. Gray
Lied der Braut - Schumann, arr. Gray
Two Dances from Terpsichore - Praetorius, arr. Gray
Bist du bei mir - Bach, arr. Gray
Der Wegweiser from Winterreise - Schubert, arr. Gray
Two Pieces - Purcell, arr. Gray
March for the Prince of Wales - Haydn, arr. Gray
Howndawg Stomp - Skip Gray
Waltz No. 2 - Shostakovich, arr. Taylor
Song of the Blacksmith from 2nd Suite in F - Holst, arr. Taylor
Intermezzo from 1st Suite in Eb - Holst, arr. Taylor

If you are interested, send me a PM or email at beanhillbrass at gmail dot com.

tagging nearby folks as I think of them: @humBell @matt g

[matt g]

Man, I wanna go, but the timing is poor for me.

[humBell]

Me too...

I am highly tempted to swap things around and try to make it, but i have lost count how many times i have postponed the trip i am planning to make what conflicts with this...

Sigh! Aren't there any easy choices life hands one?

[arpthark]

Small turnout, but we had a lot of fun. Gary Buttery showed up with a little red brass Cerveny F tuba. Another fella had a King BBb, and there was a euph. I brought all my tubas just in case I needed to fill in because I didn't know what to expect, instrumentation-wise, and ended up playing first euphonium in quartet arrangements all night. Ouch, my face.

Overall, a good time was had, and I had some folks say they will be freer after Memorial Day, including some local high school kids, so that will be a blast.

Spoiler alert: Playing music with other people is fun.

[Jperry1466]

Sounds like a successful first time. Glad it turned out well for you. We now have 11 meeting regularly, and the cool thing is everyone is a good musician who can read and play well (it helps that 3 of us have performance degrees). And you are right; playing music with other people is fun - especially when it sounds good.

[matt g]

@arpthark that's awesome to hear!