Duskin’s Christmas tradition

For nearly three decades, Don Duskin has been getting his beard ready for the holiday. Not in an effort to look like one of the season’s most iconic characters, but to decorate his double bell euphonium he plays on for community Tuba Christmas performances in Santa’s likeness.

Duskin graduated from Creston High School in 1954 and attended Iowa State, where he graduated in a bachelor of science in forestry, in 1960. While working for the forestry service in Oregon, he happened to catch a community Tuba Christmas performance and recalls being quite enchanted by it.

‘Nobody got excited about it,” said Duskin’s wife Carolyn. “It was just in this outdoor arena area, Pioneer Square.”

Much of the Tuba Christmases Duskin has performed in over the decades have been set in similar settings with its participant count fluctuating between 15 and more than 50 people.

At the time he saw Tuba Christmas in Portland, Duskin recalled them speaking about John William Bell, who was born Dec. 25, 1902, in Duskin’s hometown of Creston.

“His career as a tuba player was very, very illustrious,” said Duskin.

Bell became to be considered a premier tubist of the 20th century. In the 1920s, Bell joined the band of John Philip Sousa, who wrote “The Stars and Stripes Forever” and “Semper Fidelis.” Bell went on to become the principal tubist in 1924 in the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for 13 years. He was then invited by conductor Arturo Toscanini to play in the NBC Symphony Orchestra in New York.

“He was so enamored with the playing of Bill Bell he had him stop the music and have him play again all by himself,” said Duskin.

In 1943, Bell became principal tubist for the New York Philharmonic.

Duskin, who’s played with the Iowa State Alumni Marching band since its inception in 1980, first started playing with Tuba Christmas community bands in 1994. He recalled his first Tuba Christmas performance n Merle Hay Plaza. He continued playing in Des Moines until musicians in Ames began hosting. The furthest he’s played was in Maryville, Missouri.

Duskin said nearly 50 people showed up to play the first Tuba Christmas event in Ames and continues to grow. The last time Ames hosted in the Stephens Auditorium, it had so many participants they had to add a second performance to accommodate everyone.

He said Tuba Christmas has become so popular because it’s limited to what kind of instrument can be played and no two performances are the same.

“It’s very unique because it’s only tubas and baritones,” said Duskin. “And it’s only at Christmas.”

The double bell baritone Duskin plays for Tuba Christmas events is also the same instrument he played throughout high school and in the All-State band in the early 1950s, therefore has some sentiment to him. However, he almost lost it.

Duskin recalled needing money and selling his baritone for $200 after college. He said the kid who bought it played it through high school and in marching band at ISU. He, too, eventually needed money once he graduated and put it up for sale in his mother’s garage sale.

“My mother saw the horn in the garage sale,” Duskin said. “She called me up and said,’I saw your baritone in a garage sale, and I said ‘buy it.’”

Duskin said his euphonium was listed for $50 more than what he had sold it for and his mother wasn’t having it.

“She really didn’t want to pay that much and she made the mother so upset that she really wasn’t going to sell it to my mom no matter what the price was,” he said. “I said, ‘I don’t care what they want. Period. I’ll give you the money.”

And his mom did.

“I was glad to get it back and I’m never selling it again,” he said.

“A double bell baritone is very rare,” said Carolyn.