At the end of May I spent one of most interesting and important weeks of my life. Jamie and I attended the International Tuba Euphonium Conference at Indiana University. The subtitle for this conference was “Where It All Began”, a reference to the first conference in 1973 hosted by Harvey Phillips–there at Bloomington. At age 29 I was honored to be a guest artist and a member of the planning committee at that 1st amazing event. I have often said that it was the most important event in the history of the tuba and euphonium. This year’s conference was meant to honor 1973 and to demonstrate the great progress our instruments have made in those 41 years. They have been the years of my career as a tuba player and teacher and are mirrored by my experiences...