Posted by ... on February 02, 2004 at 16:12:02:
In Reply to: serious question posted by on February 02, 2004 at 15:33:33:
I don't know that I would go so far as to say that the ITEC is defunct; or that the ITEC conferences have been overrun by a much better Army conference. I really don't think TUBA was originally created for the purpose of having a forum such as this. Contrary to popular belief, the tuba world DOES exist outside of this discussion list. There are many, amatuer and professional, who don't even bother with this board(not to bash this forum in any way though). Also, the ITEC conferences, although they lose money and might be a little more hardcore, are much bigger and more complete than any weekend conference can be. Again, not to down the Army conference because it is awesome(and free), but in the big picture, the INTERNATIONAL tuba and euphonium conference MUST go outside the states at times because it is an INTERNATIONAL organization. It would be nice to have our INTERNATIONAL organization sit here in the states, but that doesn't really include the entire world of tuba and euphonium, just our budies here on tubenet.
Now I'm not going to say that I agree with everything ITEC does/stands for, but I think it is necessary to have some sort of association like this for our instruments to continue to be furthered/respected. Otherwise, ITEC goes down the toilet, and all tuba players assume the stereotype of sitting in the back of the ensemble burping and not caring about what goes on around them musically. The army conference/tubenet isn't a replacement, only an aid.
By the way, are you a member of ITEC, because if you are you get 12 great issues of the ITEC Journal?
disclaimer: this post is in no way trying to be offensive to Sean Chisham's tubenet, OR the U.S. Army Conference. this post is simply a different point of view.