Big brass instruments, an entertaining musical skit, a crazy costume contest and everyone’s favorite kilt-wearing musicians all packed into one fun-filled Halloween evening.
Its origins may be a mystery, but Tubaween has been a tradition on University of Idaho campus for at least 20 years. Tubaween–an annual, mostly student organized, event featuring the tuba players from the UI marching band–is split up into two different sections–a recital and a skit.
The first half of the program is the recital portion where studio students play duets, solos or small ensemble pieces. The studio professor is also going to be performing a piece during the recital. Byron Flood, a student organizer of this event, said that the recital portion was a little bit more serious than the other parts of Tubaween.
“Our studio professor dictates (the recital) to get us going on the right track for that,” Flood said, “But the students have kind of taken over the skit part. Makes it more fun.”
The skit is performed by the studio students as well as some of the souse line from the marching band.
“It’s fun to collaborate with them,” Flood said.
Flood and Gary Pawelko, another student organizer, wrote the story line for the skit. They added that the actors, or in this case the tuba players, write in their own lines based on the story that they had created.
“They come up with things that I would never think of,” Pawelko said.
He said they usually put together the skit based on some sort of popular culture entity. Normally, the theme of the skits are kept secret, but this year the organizers decided not to.
The theme is Tubatanic: The Musical.
Pawelko said that it is actually going to be a musical.
“We are bringing that back this year,” Pawelko said. “We are going to actually have people singing on stage. I’m very excited for that, I can tell you that much.”
In between the recital and the skit there is a costume contest that includes everyone in the audience that dressed up.
The winners generally get some sort of prize, according to Pawelko. All people have to do is show up at the event in a costume to be entered into the contest.
“There have been some really good ones,” Flood said.
The winner of the contest last year had dressed up as a character from “Up.”
“(The winner) is usually someone who does something amazing, or who just goes up on stage wearing next to nothing,” Pawelko said.
A few years ago, the winner was a guy dressed as a fairy princess, whose costume was just fairy wings and boxers, he said.
“It’s just a fun way to have a recital that isn’t too strict,” Flood said. “It brings in more people to just listen to music.”
While the event is free, donations are appreciated. The funds go to help the tuba studio and music programs.
“(Tubaween) is a good, fun way to raise money for the studio,” Flood said.
Tubaween takes place at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 31 in the Lionel Hampton building.
Claire Whitley can be reached at [email protected]