Tuba Christmas - Fort Worth, TX

Tuba and euphonium players play Christmas carols Dec. 23 at noon at the Fort Worth Convention Center downtown.

The address is 1111 Houston Street and the event is free for the international production. (Source: Fort Worth Weekly). It's the 20th anniversary of the Fort Worth, Texas Tuba Christmas which joins about 150 cities around the world, including 19 in Texas. The Fort Worth Merry Tuba Christmas concert is conducted by Miguel Harth-Bedoya of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.

This year also marks the 35th anniversary of this holiday tradition in which tuba, sousaphone, and euphonium players from around D.C. play traditional Christmas music led by Harvey Phillips.

In Orange County, CA, 447 tubas rung in the Christmas season in downtown Disney.

"The organizers of this year's event hoped to break their own world record for largest tuba ensemble, set last year of 502 participants but fell 56 players short," said writer Angela Potter. "New to this year's event were contests for best holiday costume and best tuba decorations." (http://www.ocregister.com/articles/tuba-year-world-2263259-event-christmas).

For more information on the Fort Worth event, call 972-898-2922 or go to tubachrismas.com online.

In unrelated event news, "Annie" will be featured Dec. 23-28 at Bass Performance Hall, also in Fort Worth, 555 Commerce Street for a price of $35-$75.00. The show is Charlie Strouse's, Martin Charnin's, and Thomas Meehan's musical about an orphan girl in Depression-era America. Shortly before Christmas 1971, Charnin, a lyricist and director bought a collection of "Little Orphan Annie" comic strips and began imagining a musical comedy based on the main character, according to research. America's most beloved show was made into a movie in 1982 co-starring Albert Finney and Carol Burnett.

For information on the Fort Worth show, call 817-332-2272.

Also on Dec. 23, a Community Christmas Dinner will be held over at The Great Hall of The Friendship House (56 Julian Avenue, San Francisco, CA) from 3-6 p.m. The Friendship House of San Francisco, a nonprofit providing residential substance abuse treatment for American Indians, holds its annual dinner and toy giveaway at this time every year. (Source: San Francisco Diversions).

For details, call 415-885-0964 or see friendshiphousesf.org.

From now until Feb. 1st, check out "Warhol and the Shared Exhibit" at the Art Galleries at TCU in Fort Worth. It's a feature of photographs and paintings by the late artist and work in a variety of mediums by the contemporary artists Rineke Dijkstra, Douglas Gordon, CS Leigh, and Tony Scherman. All four are with the TCU's Fort Worth Contemporary Arts gallery.

The venue is 2900 W. Berry Street and the event is free.

For details, call 817-257-3922.