UCA to host Octubafest, Tubaween

By Cassidy Crawford
College of Fine Arts and Communication Media Office

CONWAY — The University of Central Arkansas Department of Music will host three Halloween concerts — Octubafest, Tubaween, and Toad Suck Buck’s Octubafest – to celebrate the tuba and euphonium.

All three concerts are free and open to the public.

The spooky celebrations will begin with an afternoon of tubas playing polkas at Toad Suck Buck’s Octubafest, Saturday, Oct. 10. The concert will take place at Toad Suck Buck’s River Vista and Grill in Houston, Ark., from 2–4 p.m.

The UCA Octubafest will be held in UCA’s Snow Fine Arts recital hall on Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 7:30 p.m. Visiting Assistant Professor of Tuba and Euphonium Dr. Gail Robertson said it would be a fun-filled musical night with performances by UCA students.

The annual Tubaween Concert will also be held in UCA’s Snow Fine Arts recital hall at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 29. The concert, hosted a few days before Halloween, will feature the UCA Tuba-Euphonium Ensemble and two special guest artists from Lawrence University: Instructor of Tuba and Euphonium Marty Erickson and Associate Professor of Trombone Nick Keelan. Robertson will also play some low brass jazz in the concert.

“Our 2015 Tubaween theme is Tubas and Polkas,” Robertson said. “There will be lots of polkas, and this year’s featured sousaphone soloist, Dr. Jackie Lamar, professor of saxophone in UCA’s Department of Music, will be featured on the Concierto en Una Nota. She does not play the sousaphone, so it will be a very fun event for her and us.”

For more information, contact Robertson at grobertson@uca.edu or (501) 450-5763.

The UCA College of Fine Arts and Communication includes the Departments of Art, Communication, Mass Communication and Theatre, Music and Writing. The college’s primary mission is the preparation of the next generation of artists, educators and communicators. For more information about CFAC, visit www.uca.edu/cfac or call (501) 450-3293.

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