Cristian Mata didn’t always want to play the tuba, it just worked out that way
In middle school Cristian Mata was a self-declared bully. He’s not proud of it, but he acknowledges his past and says it’s shaped who he is today.
“I was the worst kind of person,” Mata said. “I made fun of this one kid and his trombone. I wanted to be the cool kid who picks on the band nerd.”
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Little did he know, that would soon become a title he’d learn to embrace.
Mata is now one of the fun-loving, beer-song playing, skirt-wearing tuba players many University of Idaho students have come to recognize in the Vandal Marching Band.
Instead of bullying, he’s known for his kind heart, sense of humor and dedication to the marching band and school of music.
Mata entered high school in Payette, Idaho, and said he started making friends in the band. By his sophomore year he decided to pick up an instrument and join the marching band, though he’d had no prior musical training or practice.
At the time, percussion seemed like a good fit. It wasn’t too difficult and he could easily play instruments like the gong with no effort. But, he said, once concert season rolled around he realized he hated percussion and quickly needed to find something else to play.
“That’s when I saw the tuba and I thought it was a funny instrument,” Mata said. “I still didn’t know how to read music at that point but I thought I’d try it anyway. My junior year I started learning the tuba and playing by sound.”
Mata finally learned how to read music by his senior year of high school, helping him land a part time gig teaching middle school students how to play trombones, tubas and baritones.
“I had nothing to do so I taught music at the middle school,” Mata said. “It was the most rewarding thing I did. I loved it and it was the part of my day I looked forward to every day.”
As it turned out, Mata was a natural in front of a classroom and a natural with the tuba. Traits he didn’t realize he had, but that his high school band director was all too quick to pick up on.
Mata said he had no idea what he wanted to do after high school and hadn’t really considered music as an option. But when his band director suggested he might have the skills to play in college and put the idea in his head of studying music education, he started to get serious about becoming the first person in his family to go to college.
“My parents immigrated from Mexico and got their paper so I could go to school,” Mata said. “They’re a very supportive family and they want me to be able to do what they couldn’t do.”
Mata auditioned at both Boise State University and UI, but said the welcoming atmosphere friendly faces and tuba skirts were what drew him to the Vandals.
“The football team has been a downer, and the band is why (fans) go to games,” Mata said. “It’s not that way anywhere else and I wanted to be a part of it. We’re the pride of Idaho. We work hard and we play hard.”
Mata’s family isn’t able to make it to Moscow to see him play often, but he said he knows they’re proud. He said he’s glad to have paved the way for his family and his little sister is hoping to someday attend the University of Idaho.
Mata spends his “free time,” of which he has little, particularly during the fall, enjoying the company of the friends he’s made through the band and school of music, playing extra events and singing barbershop show tunes. He’s also a member of Phi Mu Alpha–Symphonia, the music fraternity on campus.
“We’re just music makers working to advance music in America,” Mata said. “To me music is a universal language and it’s so rewarding.”
Kaitlyn Krasselt can be reached at [email protected]