Re: ITEA - Local Chapters?


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Posted by Mike I on May 23, 2003 at 00:47:05:

In Reply to: ITEA - Local Chapters? posted by Mike on May 21, 2003 at 15:35:03:

This is the something that I think ITEA should really get behind. I was involved with & on the board of what I believe was the one and only non-educational chapter of T.U.B.A (ITEA) back in the 1980's. We really had a good thing going that unfortunately fell apart. The group was called Metro-Cats (Metropolitan Chicago Area Tuba Society).

The group was the brainchild of Richard Frazier (a local pro at the time and now out in Oregon) and Greg Larson (low brass instructor at Elmhurst College at the time and last I knew down in St. Louis).
Richard was a dynamo with a lot of energy and talent. Greg was able to get us use of the college facilities for both monthly rehearsals and concerts. The college also was quite generous with paying us to play at their football homecomings since they didn't have a marching band at that time.

We played concerts at places like the Chicago Cultural Center, fun social things like the Star Spangle Banner at Wrigley Field for the Cubs, played at hockey games and were featured on local Chicago televison shows. We rehearsed once a month from September through May. I can't remember, but we may have had a hundred or so members. We had a lot of local pros ( a couple names that post to this list would be Brian Frederickson & Rich Armandi), many serious amateurs and some really talented HS kids. We also had some of the more interested in going Ompah on the Sousaphone types as well. We did a lot of educational things such as an annual solo contest after the state solo contest for HS and JrHS kids and we had some serious scholarship money for the winners.

After Richard joined the Oregon Symphony (if I recall correctly) Roger Rocco took over the conducting responsibilities and did a great job as well. The group stayed together I think for about 5-7 years. You might ask why did we disband??? Well it probably was a for a couple of reasons. One was that we tried to accomadate people who complained that rehearsals should be where they were. Elmhurst is a centrally located suburb 16 miles west of Chicago where the highways intersect, but still a 45 minute ride from the North Shore or the city or the south shore so we tried moving the rehearsals around. We also switched the day of the week - well back then there was no email and people would forget etc so people would show up at the wrong place or day. Also, when Greg left the college we also lost our connection there at the same time enrollment was starting to swell and it was getting harder to get rehearsal space. Although, it must be said the college was incredibly helpful and generous to us. We also had a lot of pros who were always at rehearsals/concerts get out of town jobs with symphonies/military/colleges and they were a driving part of the group not easily replaced. We also had gotten bogged down with a lengthy discussion of a Constitution that seemed to take up way too much time at way too many rehearsals. For non-pros with full work schedules/families they wanted to play and not debate a constitution. I heard this from several serious amateurs I had invited to the group. We also had a problem with folks who never came to rehearsals, but bring out the television cameras and they would come out of the woodwork to be on tv. Consequently, we had to simplify the music to some degree because of all the folks who didn't show at rehearsals.

As to your question "What do you need?"

Good space to rehearse
Good Conductor used to working with varying levels of skill
Access to a lot of music
Someone energetic wiiling to do the grunt work
some type of concert schedule and places to play
some type of funding
people willing to commit to coming to rehearsals and concerts
a core group of serious players so that you can weather when the pros hopefully get even better gigs and leave town
A committment to reach out to the kids (who are the future) and get them involved
Regular communication
Low or if possible no member dues

One thing I would caution is not to try to do to many things at once. I think we tried to do to much all at once. I personally also think we should have kept the rehearsals going year round to keep people in the rhythm of coming every month. I think email also would have been really helpful in our situation. We really had a lot of fun and a good thing going. As a serious amateur I found it great to make the connection with the pros and semi pros and I think everybody got something out of it.

I wish you much success - it sounds like you have the necessary enthusiasm! I've been thinking of trying to start Metro-Cats back up so if anybody in the Northern Illinois area has any interest please let me know.

Mike Incopero


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