Hello fellow low brass players!

This past week was the famous ITEC! (International Tuba and Euphonium Conference) This blog post is a short summary about the ins and outs of the conference if you don't know about it... I know I didn't when I was in high school and early college!

First off, ITEC is a conference put on by ITEA, which as you can probably guess by now is the International Tuba and Euphonium Association. You can find their website at  www.iteaonline.org. The conference is a week-long event held at a different location around the country and abroad each year. This year, ITEC took place in Knoxville at the University of Tennessee.

The conference is full of master classes, presentations, recitals, and concerts. There are also plenty of exhibits from instrument stores to try out all of their awesome instruments, including yours truly, the Tuba Exchange! There's always something going on during the conference, but it's nice to take a break and go check out all the different instruments!

A typical day in the life of ITEC starts out at 8 AM with a group warm-up which is lead by an influential teacher or performer from the low brass community. The day then breaks off into master classes, presentations, and recitals given by a variety influential teachers, performers, and small ensembles. Each lasts about an hour, and these events continue throughout each and every day. A few examples from this year were a master class given by Gene Pokorny on going beyond what the composer wrote in order to make music, and a joint recital given by Aubrey Foard and Derek Fenstermacher, principal tubists of the Charlotte and New Jersey Symphonies respectively.

To conclude each day, a concert is given at 8 PM that features the "big hitters" in the tuba and euphonium world. This year, Oystein Baadsvik, Ben Pierce, Sergio Carolino, Roland Szentpali, and Steven Mead (just to name a few!) gave concerts. If you don't know who they are, please look them up because they are the ones leading low brass solo playing and pushing boundaries.

That about wraps this post up, and I hope it was fairly informative. Though ITEC is officially over this year, start thinking about the one next year! It's a great experience, full of education and inspiration, and you get to meet all the great names in the low brass world like a low brass geek!

If you have any questions about the conference or if I missed anything, feel free to shoot me an email and I can talk with you more in depth!

Max Wang

max@tubaexchange.com