Ever since I saw a beautiful large beat up silver sousaphone standing against a fence at a yard sale in 2013, I have been fascinated by American made tubas of yesteryear. 

 

As a music teacher who plays tuba and sousaphone proficiently by taking odd parade gigs with local community groups, I decided I should buy my own.  Tuba players are a rare commodity to local groups and I was getting a lot of gigs.  I needed a brass sousaphone with much better sound than the fiberglass one I was borrowing from the school.

 

Find it I did.  The magnificently tarnished and dented up sousaphone at the yard sale turned out to be a rare York instrument.  Knowing nothing about York, I researched and became fascinated with the history of the company and the respect it carried among low brass players with the almost mythical "York" sound qualities in their brass.  I discovered it was a true one of a kind York Monster sousaphone, currently the earliest recorded York sousaphone in the census, and designed a little differently than subsequent ones.  I had the sousaphone restored and polished; and it sits as the cornerstone of my collection.  It plays fantastically even for an instrument almost a hundred years old!

 

It is said that the tuba finds the player.  All of the instruments in my collection managed to find me.  My promise is to have them spend their days safe from the ravages of time, restored to their former beauty, and lovingly played for years to come.

 

The Tubaist

Fall 2015

Teacher, Music Director, Clarinetist, Tubaist

Live & work in Boston, MA