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Octubafest continues through Thursday

If you pass the Bryan Fine Arts building between now and Nov. 4, you’ll most likely hear the tuba players preparing their pieces for Tennessee Tech University’s Department of Music and Arts 36th annual Octubafest.

Octubafest includes a substantial amount of recitals and concerts of TTU students and alumni who play instruments in the tuba family. This also involves the euphonium, bass tuba and contrabass tuba.

Octubafest at TTU provides an environment for students to demonstrate their technical and musical abilities, hard work and efforts put into these specific instruments.

Being the youngest of orchestral instruments, the tuba family was not featured in solo settings until the 1960’s. The rapid recognition and advancement of the tuba during this period is partly attributable to Winston Morris, Professor of Music and Instructor of Tuba and Euphonium at TTU.

Morris has been on the faculty since 1967 and is not only been regarded internationally for the advancement of the tuba for the past 40 years, but the major authority on the development of the tuba ensemble. The Tennessee Tech Tuba Ensemble is a group of TTU alumni that has won several awards and is the most recorded group to date.

Taking place in the Wattenbarger Auditorium in the Bryan Fine Arts Building on TTU’s campus, all of the recitals and chamber music concerts are free and open to the public.

There are still around a dozen recitals remaining on October 28 through October 31 and Octubafest will conclude with a special performance by the Tennessee Tech Tuba Ensemble Nov. 4 at 7:30 p.m.

To find out the various times of each performance, visit TTU’s website at www.tntech.edu or contact Morris at wmorris@tntech.edu.