07/05/2025
You may ask, who runs this page? It’s a mixture of efforts, but mostly the social media “officer” (I prefer captain personally), Jacob Porter.
I play tuba and have since 2005, when I first blew away the concert band conductor of Carbrook State School at that time, Mr Glen Court. From the first note I tooted, this conductor beamed at me. I knew I had to be doing something right. Believe it or not, flute was my first choice. Tuba however was (and still is) the best choice.
This instrument I currently own and lug around was bought by my parents in 2007 when I had to graduate from primary school to high school and couldn’t bring the first tuba I played on. My parents were instrumentally supportive to my passion for music and wanted me to continue playing. Through thick and thin in Victoria Point State High School, I laid the foundations of their concert band from 2008 to my graduation in 2012, fighting to have more representation and interest in music in a school that loved its sport and dancing teams. I pushed regardless of outcome in 2012 when the band was consistent of a much smaller scale than when it started in 2008 by becoming the Instrumental Music Leader of 2012. In this period there was a state schools on stage performance I did, where I got three seconds of fame on national television playing my tuba.
After graduating high school, I was blowing my horn in Redland City Concert Band, Sunnybank Brass Band where I learnt how to read treble clef tuba and was in the Brisbane Regional Youth Orchestra. I even attempted to start an ensemble through Navy Cadets’ TS Walrus as a Leading Seaman around this stage! From the end of 2016 I had a hiatus up until 2023 to 2024 when I picked up tuba again. It was kept in safe hands with a combined effort of my parents who made sure it was there for me when I needed it and my paternal grandmother who kept it at her place in the Redlands. I had moved around Brisbane since 2016 and out to Dalby on May 8, 2023 so when I joined Western Downs Winds in 2024, I felt very out of place. Amanda, who is our president of the Western Downs Winds, just so happens to share my mother’s first name. I laughed when I saw her name was Amanda, only because my mother is one of my biggest fans. Since then, I’ve been very welcome in the Western Downs Winds and wish to hark back into the heavens the colours of joy, passion and boldness of brass.
May 8, 2025 marks my second year in Dalby where I additionally play tuba in the QUT Music Society in their concert band, big band (Blackbirds) and orchestra, alongside Western Downs Winds concert band. I get the chance to pass my primary school when I travel from Dalby to Kelvin Grove, then towards my home away from home in the Redlands, where I blew my first note on a tuba. I try to be a relatively private person but like my instrument, I can’t help but be painfully visible and loud. The pride of a tuba is extremely hard to muffle.
