Driving south on the Golden State Freeway to Atwater Village for an assignment today, I passed by Griffith Park and spotted a man sitting near a tree playing what looked like a tuba.
Yeah, you read right, a tuba. Usually, someone playing an instrument at a park wouldn't elicit a second thought. People play guitars, drums, violins, eukeleles, clarinets, trumpets, at parks regularly. But a tuba?
I got off at the next exit and wound my way through the park looking for the guy with the horn. A photo op I didn't want to pass up. I parked, identified myself and told him I'd like to take his photo for this Web site. He gladly obliged, all the while playing music from a sheet on the ground in front of him -- Mahler's 7th Symphony.
His name is Tom Burge, 37. He plays the tenor horn, which looks like a tuba but doesn't sound as guttural. Burge was practicing for a concert he'll perform with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Jan. 12-14 at Disney Hall.
Amazing who you run into in L.A. He was practicing in the biggest municipal park in the country, in 80-degree winter weather no less, and before that he was out surfing in Malibu.
What a life, huh?
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