A community just east of Winnipeg is quickly becoming known as “Tuba Town” thanks to a viral video of its middle school band practicing for a holiday concert.
The video, posted Nov. 18, shows the Grade 6 band at Ecole Dugald School rehearsing, and has since eclipsed two million views on Instagram — due in part to what seems like an unusually large tuba section.
Band director Corah Enns told 680 CJOB’s The Start that although many of the young musicians seen in the video are, in fact, playing euphoniums — a member of the tuba family — it’s still a tuba-heavy band.
“In a concert band … normally the size would be about 50 students, and around three would play tuba,” Enns said. “We’ve got seven … we’ve got a lot of low instruments and we’re proud of it.
“Without a low end, the band is nothing, so we need that foundation.”
Enns said the large group of up-and-coming tubists is strategic, as many of the band’s top players from last year have moved on to high school, so they’re working on developing the next generation.
The band director, who shot the viral video, said she thinks part of the reason for its success is that people have been viewing it multiple times as they attempt to count the number of tubas (and euphoniums) in the back row.
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“It’s very weird and strange,” she said.
“I was tracking the comments when they first started. Some tuba players in the states were commenting — you could tell they’re marching band nerds — some sharing (was happening) in Ireland … tuba, tuba, tuba, people questioning how many tubas there are.
“You never know what’s going to go viral. I never expected this.”
Principal Andrew Mead said the video was just one of many the school posts regularly, highlighting the accomplishments of its students, and no one expected it to get so much attention, but the school is embracing its success.
“There was a pretty small response to start, and I guess maybe the right person saw it with a bigger following. Over the past week or so, it’s ballooned,” he said.
“Some of the comments in there are really funny, and they celebrate our kids doing something pretty awesome in our school, and they worked so hard.
“I think a lot of people saw that and just wanted to celebrate our kids and our teacher.”
Mead said the community at large is embracing its unexpected fame.
“We have a ‘Welcome to Dugald’ sign just as you drive into our town, and someone created a ‘Tuba Town’ sign to place below it,” he said.
“They see the fun in it, they see the goodness of it, of kids just doing good things. I think our school’s pretty fantastic, but did I think we’d be popular because of tubas?”
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