‘We are so happy to have an audience this year’: Tuba Christmas takes center stage at Anchorage’s PAC

Tubas, sousaphones, euphoniums, baritones, and a bass flugelhorn, filled the lobby of the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts Saturday for the annual holiday concert.

A full scale celebration welcomed Tuba Christmas back this year where musicians helped fill the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts lobby with jolly and warm brass sounds.

The event is on the cusp of its 50th year and featured a variety of brass players –– and instruments –– including tubas, sousaphones, euphoniums, baritones and a bass flugelhorn that were adorned with holiday lights, tinsel and bows.

“We are so happy to have an audience this year,” said PAC Community Engagement Manager Erynn Bell. “It’s been quite the journey since 2020.”

The first pandemic-era concert was livestreamed and featured just six socially distanced and masked players, Bell told the crowd.

This year, the ensemble was composed of more than 40 people. Families, children and friends filled the stairs, upper levels and lobby floor to listen in and sing along.

Emily Mesner

Emily Mesner is a multimedia journalist for the Anchorage Daily News. She previously worked for the National Park Service at Denali National Park and Preserve and the Western Arctic National Parklands in Kotzebue, at the Cordova Times and at the Jackson Citizen Patriot in Jackson, Michigan.