A Tuba For Highschool And Career

Hello! My name is Zakaiah Kasian. I am fourteen years old as an 8th grader in middle school. I have had a passion for music since I was two years old.

Over the past five years, I have grown a love for the brass quintet, The Canadian Brass. I was particularly attached to the Tuba player Charles "Chuck" Daellenbach, and as such, I wanted to learn some tuba music. I have yet to have a tuba in my possession until Christmas 2020; my aunt bought me a 1970's Yamaha 3/4 YBB-103 BBb Tuba. I have grown physically and mentally (but mostly physically) since then. I have also developed my technical skills with more study of the instrument. I feel it's time to make an upgrade.

I was 5'6 at the time of receiving the Yamaha horn. After a year of a growth spurt, I now stand at a tall-ish 5'9. I used a 3/4 size horn through my school and independent tuba career. Because I have grown, I am getting too big for the other tuba I use at school. My teacher knew about this problem. He decided to borrow a more appropriately sized tuba from another school in the area. This horn happened to be an Olds 4/4 0991 BBb Tuba. The tuba was perfect for me to use in the school band situation.

That tuba is acceptable to use at school, but I'd like to have something to use at home when I'm not rehearsing at school. I would also like to switch it up and try to adapt to CC tubas along with BBb. There has been a CC tuba that caught my eyes for a while; The Getzen CB50 Canadian Brass 4/4 CC Tuba.

In the 1990s, Getzen (a brass company) made a deal with the Canadian Brass (mentioned earlier) to make a series of instruments for them, including a 4/4, 5 Valve, CC Tuba. Chuck used the horn on countless recordings and live performances from 1994 onward. The deal was short-lived, with the CB50 being discontinued in 2003, Getzen never made any other tubas after then. Therefore, this tuba was a rare gem to find for sale on the internet.

Let's fast-forward a bit to 2021, when I attended the Ithaca College Tuba/Euphonium Day. A couple of other participants and I hung out in the main lobby before it was time to go into the rehearsal space. As soon as we went into the rehearsal space to set up, I found one. It was that Getzen Tuba! It wasn't the school's horn. Instead, it was a student's own tuba they bought themselves. After the concert at the end of the day, the guy who owned the tuba let me take a picture with it (the photo cover for this page). That's when I knew I had to get one. Again, these tubas were hard to come by these days, as they only ran for about nine years.

This summer, I will be attending the Ithaca College Summer Music Academy. I'm willing to bet that their offered repertoire for me to play may require 4th Valve (god forbid, 5th valve) registers. I have been looking for the perfect little big horn for me to play in a small or large ensemble situation. That Getzen Tuba is it. Additionally, if I ever happen to join or form my own brass quintet (which might occur at some point), The Getzen would be an excellent horn for that. It would also be a great tuba to play for high school (next year).

I want to get one of those rare CB50 Tubas before July.

I then proceeded to do some more research on the beautiful horn over the next several months. One website that came up was the Baltimore Brass Company website. I looked around on the website and saw what they had in stock for tubas. They had a couple of fascinating and rare horns, but no Getzen to be found.

I checked the website daily to see if they had one on sale. In February of 2022, sure enough, they had posted one at their store. I Was Shocked. I finally found one. That alone felt like a huge accomplishment to me. I told one of my school counselors about my situation. He then told me to make a GoFundMe page. He also said he might contribute $500. I can tell he wanted me to succeed in my career.

(Edit, December 2022)

Hello all! I am so happy about what we accomplished through this fundraiser! I want to thank everyone who donated!

I originally wasn't going to make a GoFundMe page because I thought it would be not polite to ask random people, "just give some kid money to spend on a tuba he found on the internet." But I might as well give it a shot! In the meantime,

I will remain here, earning money from babysitting and maybe a potential job.

Thank You To Anyone Who Is Able To Help!

-Zakaiah Kasian