Posted by Brian Frederiksen on May 24, 2003 at 12:02:51:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: ITEA Divisions posted by Dennis on May 24, 2003 at 06:33:28:
The METRO-CATS have been brought up a few times here. When I was involved with them in the 80's I realized that this was something that was not being done elsewhere, trying to bring every tuba player in a major metropolitan area together. There were a few successful things and some problems:
Chicago is a big area but there were a number of people who said "This is a great idea but can you do it in MY neighborhood."
While members consisted of grade school kids to the tubist of the CSO, academians stayed away. We did not have very much participation of the tuba studios of various area universities. When Roger Rocco was teaching at Northwestern, he did tuba ensemble concerts and included METRO-CATS.
In the 80's there was no internet and communication was a problem and our major cost. Today that is different, newsletters are replaced by email and group lists.
It was amazing to see what would happen when TV cameras came out! We did a Cubs game and later a TV station did a story about us. People came out of the woodwork that we never saw before and would never see again. I can understand that for the Cubs, I thought it was great playing on the grass of Wrigley Field and wouldn't blame anyone but when the camera came out for the news story, it was the people out of the woodwork that did everything possible to get in the picture.
Probably the worse thing was to many idians and not enough chiefs, anotherwords a vast majority did not want to do any of the work, they just wanted to play. Any organization has things to be done. Perhaps at the monthly meetings there should have been a business meeting and a playing/rehearsal time.
Where to do it? We had facilities at Elmhurst College located just west of the city where the expressways seem to merge together. It was a drive (see "do it in MY neighborhood" above) but there was a rehearsal room and recital hall. Best of all, it was free! We did some revolving meetings at Northwestern but it seemed the ones who were always going were there, the others still stayed away.
While TubaChristmas in Chicago draws 400 or so, METRO-CATS only had 50 or so. A few years ago I was in Atlanta for the first Ground Forces conference. Out of 350 for TubaChristmas, less than 50 stayed for the conference across the street and it was free! Could it just be that a vast majority just plain don't care?
Yes, the regional idea was good. I've been to shows going back to 1973 as a student, player, performer, assistant to a lecturer, vendor and presentor. Been to the equivlent of six regionals the last year. There should have been more people at each of them, some more than others. I sat through a great presentation by Harvey Phillips last week with an audience well under 50 people. What is the solution, I dunno. There is a problem, the academians need this for career advancement, a lot of pros just don't get involved, kids, vendors, students, those who just want to play, those who are in learning mode and those who are not interested in learning anything. Pretty diverse group to try and get together - that's the problem, doing something to keep everyone happy!