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TUBAfest is Saturday in Dalton Center

Oct. 17, 2005

KALAMAZOO--Calling all tuba and euphonium enthusiasts!

The 30th annual TUBAfest at Western Michigan University is Saturday, Oct. 22, and concludes with a free, public concert by the mass tuba-euphonium ensemble at 5 p.m. Dalton Center Recital Hall.

The festival is intended all tuba and euphonium players, from middle schoolers to seasoned veterans. Programs run 11:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and the cost is $10 per person. This year's festival features internationally renowned euphonium player Matt Tropman, former WMU professor and tubist Robert Whaley and current professor of tuba and euphonium Deanna Swoboda.

Deanna Swoboda joined the WMU music faculty in August. Since 2000, Swoboda has performed as a member of the Dallas Brass, a six-piece ensemble that travels the United States and Europe presenting approximately 100 concerts per year and working extensively in the public schools and at colleges and universities. Her other performing credits include the Denver Brass; Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Symphony; Symphony of the West Valley, Arizona; and Washington-Idaho Symphony. She has also made appearances on the CBS Early Morning Show and National Public Radio, and was featured in the May 2004 issue of The Instrumentalist magazine and the October 2000 issue of School Band and Orchestra magazine.

Swoboda is the creator and performer of a motivational recruiting presentation and music workshop called "Brass Rap!" and founder of the University of Oklahoma's International Tuba/Euphonium Summer Workshop, which has been held annually since 1998. Swoboda holds degrees from the University of Idaho and Northwestern University, and is completing studies for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Arizona State University.

Matt Tropman former solo euphonium player with the United States Marine Band in Washington, D.C., now resides in Battle Creek, Mich., where he serves as executive director of the Brass Band of Battle Creek and adjunct professor in low brass at Eastern Michigan University. With the Marine Band, Tropman performed frequently at the White House and as a soloist throughout the United States.

Tropman has released two CDs, "Continuum" and "From the Balcony." He has been featured in solo performances at such venues as Cleveland's Severance Hall, Baltimore's Myerhoff Symphony Hall and Cincinnati's Music Hall, among others. Recently he was named a semifinalist in the Concert Artists Guild International Competition in New York and performed with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra on six concerts featuring the music of Richard Strauss and Gustav Holst. He is a graduated from the University of Michigan in 1995.

Media contact: Kevin West, (269) 387-4678, kevin.west@wmich.edu

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