Yamaha Introduces YCB-826S Handcrafted Tuba
BUENA PARK, Calif. Yamaha's YCB-826S Tuba is a handcrafted, 6/4 orchestral C tuba, available in limited production. The choice of top orchestral professionals around the world, the tuba was featured as part of Yamaha's Day of Tubas last year.
Each instrument is painstakingly constructed by a very small number of highly skilled craftsman, producing each individual piece and part by hand. This handmade construction produces an instrument with a deep, rich, low range, agile response and an individual sound character.
The instrument has a muscular low register with a very defined core that couples well with the bass trombone in the orchestral setting, and produces the type of sound core that makes it very easy for the trombone and low brass section to build on. Conversely, the middle and upper registers can take on expressive, buoyant and bravura qualities that are rarely heard on the contrabass tuba.
The YCB-826S can play so soft it exhibits only a sheen barely audible in the orchestra at times. With relative ease, however, it can keep up with any loud tutti brass section passage.
The first tuba sold to a member of the public went to Principal Tuba of the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera, Christopher Olka. Olka, a Yamaha Performing Artist, has had a wide and varied career in music. His orchestral experience includes substitute tuba with the New York Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony and New Jersey Symphony, as well as principal positions with the New Jersey Pops, American Repertory Ballet, Aspen Festival and Garden State Philharmonic orchestras.
A staff musician for the Walt Disney World Company in Orlando, Florida from 1989 to 1996, Olka was also a member of many bands, including Tubafours, the world's only full time tuba quartet.
His education includes a B.M. from the University of Central Florida, and an M.M. from The Juilliard School. During his undergraduate studies, Olka was the winner of the Music Teacher's National Association (MTNA) Collegiate Artist Brass Solo Competition in 1996; he won the Southern Regional MTNA Solo Competition twice, and the Florida MTNA Solo Competition three times. He was guest tuba artist for HPNWBBb (The Harvey Phillips Northwest "Big Brass" Bash) in 1999.
Olka's teachers include Warren Deck and Joe Alessi of the New York Philharmonic and Abe Torchinsky (Philadelphia Orchestra, retired).
"Since taking delivery of my new YCB-826, I have been thrilled beyond my expectations with this incredible instrument," says Olka. "For the first time in my career I finally have a tuba that allows me to do whatever I want without compromise. This is without a doubt the easiest playing, best sounding, 6/4 orchestral C tuba I have ever played. The overwhelming consensus from players and conductors alike has been that this instrument produces the biggest, clearest, warmest tone they have heard from a tuba. I believe that with the YCB-826, Yamaha has created a horn that epitomizes the Classic American Orchestral Tuba sound and set a new standard for what is possible when you combine great artists with great craftsmen committed to developing the instruments they need."
For more information, write Yamaha Corporation of America, Band & Orchestral Division, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622; telephone (714) 522-9011; e-mail infostation@yamaha.com; or visit www.yamaha.com/band.
 Yamaha Performing Artist Chris Olka at Yamaha Artist Services, Inc. in New York, with his YCB-826S. |
The instrument has a muscular low register with a very defined core that couples well with the bass trombone in the orchestral setting, and produces the type of sound core that makes it very easy for the trombone and low brass section to build on. Conversely, the middle and upper registers can take on expressive, buoyant and bravura qualities that are rarely heard on the contrabass tuba.
The YCB-826S can play so soft it exhibits only a sheen barely audible in the orchestra at times. With relative ease, however, it can keep up with any loud tutti brass section passage.
The first tuba sold to a member of the public went to Principal Tuba of the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera, Christopher Olka. Olka, a Yamaha Performing Artist, has had a wide and varied career in music. His orchestral experience includes substitute tuba with the New York Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony and New Jersey Symphony, as well as principal positions with the New Jersey Pops, American Repertory Ballet, Aspen Festival and Garden State Philharmonic orchestras.
A staff musician for the Walt Disney World Company in Orlando, Florida from 1989 to 1996, Olka was also a member of many bands, including Tubafours, the world's only full time tuba quartet.
His education includes a B.M. from the University of Central Florida, and an M.M. from The Juilliard School. During his undergraduate studies, Olka was the winner of the Music Teacher's National Association (MTNA) Collegiate Artist Brass Solo Competition in 1996; he won the Southern Regional MTNA Solo Competition twice, and the Florida MTNA Solo Competition three times. He was guest tuba artist for HPNWBBb (The Harvey Phillips Northwest "Big Brass" Bash) in 1999.
Olka's teachers include Warren Deck and Joe Alessi of the New York Philharmonic and Abe Torchinsky (Philadelphia Orchestra, retired).
"Since taking delivery of my new YCB-826, I have been thrilled beyond my expectations with this incredible instrument," says Olka. "For the first time in my career I finally have a tuba that allows me to do whatever I want without compromise. This is without a doubt the easiest playing, best sounding, 6/4 orchestral C tuba I have ever played. The overwhelming consensus from players and conductors alike has been that this instrument produces the biggest, clearest, warmest tone they have heard from a tuba. I believe that with the YCB-826, Yamaha has created a horn that epitomizes the Classic American Orchestral Tuba sound and set a new standard for what is possible when you combine great artists with great craftsmen committed to developing the instruments they need."
For more information, write Yamaha Corporation of America, Band & Orchestral Division, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622; telephone (714) 522-9011; e-mail infostation@yamaha.com; or visit www.yamaha.com/band.