Kansas City Tuba Christmas Breaks World Record

Since its inception in 1974, Tuba Christmas has maintained a long-standing tradition for low brass players during the holiday season. Founded by Harvey Phillips, this ‘heavy metal’ event was created to honor one of the great tuba legends, William J. Bell, for his birth on Christmas Day. 45 years later, Tuba Christmas events have been held all over the world throughout the month of December.

Naturally, an event of this nature should be in the Guinness Book of World Records…

So on Saturday, December 8, 2018, in Kansas City, Missouri, 835 tuba and euphonium players gathered in KC’s Municipal Arena to set the world record for “Largest Tuba Ensemble.” Hosted by the Kansas City Symphony, this annual event usually is held in the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Obviously, with this kind of magnitude of people (and sound), a larger venue was needed. The official rules were to play a song continuously for five minutes. The selected piece, put on repeat, was ‘Silent Night’ until the time was completed 

The previous world record took place on December 21, 2007, by the Tuba Christmas in Anaheim with 502 performers. To learn more, read this article and watch the video below.