About Tuba Bach
MISSION: To provide the Big Rapids area community the opportunity to attend and experience world-class performances of chamber music in their own town, free of charge.
The Tuba Bach Chamber Music Festival, in conjunction with STAGE-M, brings world class concert events to Big Rapids. The Festival continues to bring some of the finest musical talents from our community, the state of Michigan and from across the country to present six weeks of unique concerts, educational programs for our students, and community outreach events available to all. We continue also to stretch the imaginations of our audiences and the established definitions of chamber music in general by presenting a wide variety of musical styles and offerings, from soaring operatic arias and rousing choruses to brilliant improvisations and laugh-out-loud humor, intricate classical presentations and graceful dance to flourishing brass and boisterous Dixieland Jazz.
The Tuba Bach Chamber Music Festival has entertained and educated thousands of Big Rapids area residents and students, Ferris State University faculty and students and neighboring West Michigan community members, as well as audience members from across the state and many out-of-state patrons who have made their journeys to Michigan for the festival an annual event. Musicians have come from six different countries, fifteen states, and throughout Michigan, as well as from our local communities to share their talents.
Tuba Bach has also commissioned and premiered several new musical compositions as well as numerous transcriptions and arrangements, adding quality new works to the repertoire by internationally known composers as well as composers from right here in our community.
And while the roster of musicians has been impressive indeed, with Grammy award winning musicians, Grand Ole' Opry regulars, and many internationally recognized artists from a variety of genres, Tuba Bach has and will continue to offer its world class Sunday afternoon concerts to everyone, with no admission fee.
EDWARD K. MALLETT is the founder and artistic director of the internationally acclaimed Tuba Bach Chamber Music Festival, held annually in Big Rapids, Michigan, where he has shared the stage and collaborated with award winning artists and ensembles including the Harlem String Quartet, Classical Jam, tenor Rodrick Dixon, jazz trumpet legend Marcus Belgrave, pianist/composer Alvin Waddles, comedic genius Heywood Banks, electric bassist Steve Bailey, drummer Bernie Dresel, harpist Sylvia Norris, African griot Mady Kouyate, harmonica virtuoso Mike Stevens, bluegrass legend Raymond McLain, Venezuelan flute master Marco Granados, blues guitarist Rick Hicks, jazz vocalists Sunny Wilkinson and Eve Cornelious, the New Millennium Chorale Gospel Ensemble, the Tuba Bach Quartet – with Chuck Guy, Phil Sinder and Demondrae Thurman, and hundreds of other musicians.
Dr. Mallett has performed as soloist and chamber musician across North America in venues ranging from major concert halls to small town band shells, east coast Ivy League colleges to west coast elementary school gymnasiums, international music festivals to inner city clubs. In addition to his euphonium and tuba performance career, Mallett is also recognized as one of the world's foremost authorities on the double bell euphonium, presenting clinics and seminars on the instrument at a variety of international events. He is also active as a composer and arranger.
Dr. Mallett earned his undergraduate degree in music from Central Michigan University in 1992 and graduate degrees in music from Michigan State University in 1993 and 1996. He taught for over a decade at colleges and universities in Michigan and North Carolina before returning to his hometown to pursue his performing and compositional career full time. Mallett happily lives in the Big Rapids area with his wife Adriana, their sons Gordon and Noah, and their neurotic dogs Charlie and Dizzy.
Tuba Bach Chamber Music Festival Board Members
| Dr. Edward K. Mallett | Artistic Director, Founder, Artist in Residence |
| Jerena Keys | Financial Secretary |
| Glen Pepper | Financial Advisor |
Dr. Richard Scott Cohen |
Artistic Advisor |
Adriana Mallett |
Grant Coordinator |
Tuba Bach Committees:
Education
| Kendall Schroeder, Chair |
| Kent Boulton |
| Scott Cohen |
Marketing
| Jeff Gabalis, Chair |
| Gordon Mallett |
Fundraising
| Adriana Mallett, Chair |
| Steve Miller |
| Glen Pepper |
Hospitality
| Janet Mallett, Chair |
| Katie Blackburn |
2010 Collaborations
This year Tuba Bach is working with Starburst, the Mecosta County Commission on aging, the Big Rapids Housing Commission, and the Mecosta-Osceola Intermediate School District Special Education Program to make sure that our programming is available to all, providing programs on site at nursing homes and special needs schools and providing transportation to those who need assistance attending concert events.
Community Outreach in 2010
In addition to the six Sunday afternoon concerts, the Tuba Bach Quartet will be performing for elementary school children as well as at Altercare Nursing Home, hosting a workshop for low brass players and performing with area musicians in Con Brio Voce; Maestra Suzanne Mallare Acton, conductor of the Rackham Symphony Choir, and tenor Rodrick Dixon will be working with students in the Big Rapids
High School vocal music program, including bringing them on stage for the September 19th concert; the musicians of Classical Jam will be performing at area schools, including the MOISD Special Education Center, as well as working with area dancers at the Rhythmic Sky Dance Studio in Big Rapids; pianist Alvin Waddles will provide entertainment for a dinner honoring and thanking our many sponsors and benefactors; and jazz legend Marcus Belgrave and his band will perform for local students as well as present a Saturday workshop for area jazz musicians.
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (21 March 1685 O.S. – 28 July 1750 N.S.) was a prolific German composer and organist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity. Although he introduced no new forms, he enriched the prevailing German style with a robust contrapuntal technique, a control of harmonic and motivic organisation from the smallest to the largest scales, and the adaptation of rhythms and textures from abroad, particularly Italy and France.
Revered for their intellectual depth and technical and artistic beauty, JS Bach's works include the Brandenburg concertos; the Goldberg Variations; the English Suites, French Suites, Partitas, and Well-Tempered Clavier; the Mass in B Minor; the St Matthew Passion; The Musical Offering; The Art of Fugue; the Sonatas and Partitas for violin solo; the Cello Suites; more than 200 surviving cantatas; and a similar number of organ works, including the famous Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. Although not always appreciated during his own lifetime, and considered to be "old-fashioned" by his contemporaries, especially late in his career, today Bach is considered one of the most famous and influential composers of all time. (From Wikipedia)
Biography of J.S. Bach