The tuba, known for supporting polka bands with a reliable oom-pah-pah, may not be an instrument you’d expect to produce high-level classical music.
But in the control of high school senior Gabe Welch, 18, the instrument is capable of much more.
One morning last month he rushed out of the house — forgoing breakfast — to make the two-hour drive from Winona to St. Paul. By 10:30 a.m., Welch was sitting in Minnesota Public Radio’s spacious Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Studio, about to execute his first professional recording.
Welch’s initial blow into his massive silver tuba’s mouthpiece reverberated through the room.
“I didn’t think anything was louder than that piano,” remarked technical director Johnny Vince Evans from inside the booth.
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