Folk music with a feeling, that’s how the tubist Stefan Huber describes the music of his Chapel Sun & Sun. Bavarian folk music, however, peppered with hip-hop, funk, folk music, a cappella, reggae and classic – a wild, stirring mix that the combo plays live until the audience can’t keep their seats. After all, the tuba player worked in the band of Bavaria’s parade brass band for eight years La Brass Banda practiced. Huber is currently playing the tuba with the house band in the Hofbräuhaus on Mondays, teaching Styrian harmonica and touring through Bavaria with So & So, including a new programme.
Monday: Playing in the Hofbräuhaus
House band of the Hofbräuhaus am Platzl: the Obermüller Musikanten.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
In the morning I take the train from the Berchtesgadener Land, where I live, to Munich. In the Hofbräuhaus I’ve been playing the tuba on Mondays for a few years in the chapel there with the Obermüller musicians. It starts at 12 o’clock in the trio. What many people don’t know: there is live music every day in the Hofbräuhaus! Music is played without sheet music, it is always a great inspiration. During the break, I’m meeting up with Michael Well, formerly Biermösl Blosn around the corner in the “Italia” in the valley. We’re both past the premieres of our respective new programs. Michi with his brothers and Gerhard Polt “A scheene Leich” in the Kammerspiele, I with my band So&So and “Oane.Moan.I.Nam.I.No”. Our Munich premiere is on March 4th at the Paulaner am Nockherberg. So we have a lot to tell each other. From 6 p.m. we continue to play in the Hofbräuhaus with a larger cast.
Tuesday: Ziach class
The Styrian harmonica is a diatonic, alternating-tone hand-pulled instrument.
(Photo: imago stock&people)
Tuesday is my practice and class day. I use the hours in the morning when the phone isn’t ringing. In the So&So chapel I play the tuba, which has been with me for more than half my life. The diatonic harmonica, however, even longer. I’m teaching the ziach this afternoon in the Auer music workshop in Ainring near Freilassing. The nice thing about teaching the accordion is that it goes faster than with other instruments and after a few hours my students can usually play with me in two parts. Then it’s on to Aufham, where I grew up. With the Music band Aufham I also grew up musically. I’m always fascinated by how well it works when several generations play together, from the 15-year-old clarinetist to the 80-year-old trombonist.
Wednesday: Film-ready brass band music
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We not only play live, we also manage a label including a sheet music publisher and an online shop. For this we converted an old carpentry shop in Ainring near Freilassing into a rehearsal room including an office and warehouse. Lots of new ideas grow here and projects are created. Today we are tinkering with our videos that we will be showing in the hall of the Chiemseer Wirtshaus (always a great tip for going out in Chieming) have recorded. We take a lunch break in the traditional “Altwirt” in Piding with very good regional cuisine and a lively cultural hustle and bustle: Bavarian inn culture.
Thursday: Paradise for brass players
Wind instrument shop “Miraphone” in Waldkraiburg: Employees Leo Schranner (left) and Stefan Huber.
(Photo: Karoline Beckmann)
In the morning I go to Waldkraiburg to “Miraphone”, one of the best forges for brass instruments since 1946 and now a world leader. A tuba is big and heavy and I need a different strap. “Miraphone” is a cooperative that elects the board of directors from its workforce every few years. When things are going well, all employees benefit, when things aren’t going well, we look for solutions together. I like that. Most of them also play a brass instrument themselves and are always tinkering with things that can be optimized. And while Christian and his team solve my problem, I stroll through the showroom, touch here, try things out there. For me a paradise! Hundreds of trumpets, trombones, tenor horns and tubas.
Friday: Until the instruments glow
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Today we play our new program in the Strobl landlord in Oberhausen. I like this really cozy Bavarian inn on the edge of the Blue Land behind Weilheim. Many Bavarian cabaret artists, musicians and bands have played in this hall. Some who are also on really big stages today. Our new program has it all. We touch on many different musical styles that we have to be able to do: hip-hop, funk, folk music, a cappella and classical, something for everyone until the instruments glow. The title of our new program sounds phonetically more like Japan, but it’s real Upper Bavarian and even at dawn it rolls off your tongue, which may already be heavy, much smoother than: “I’d still take one!”.
Saturday: Timeless play
Sebastian Huber, one of the main actors in the ensemble of “Himmegugga”.
(Photo: Erwin Ringsgwandl)
I have tickets for the “Himmegugga” for tonight, a play by Anna Elfriede Ringsgwandl, which premiered in Riedering in 2006 and has now been performed more than 1,300 times. So today I can be a spectator. The play is fantastic, definitely timeless and staged with great attention to detail . The main role is played by Sebastian Huber, actor, graphic artist, theater and children’s book author from Breitbrunn. A fantastic person, highly talented and always open to new things. He immortalized us musicians in the band as caricatures and most of the album covers are also his “I plan to go to the theater and concerts more often again. You learn so much, many new ideas also come from watching or listening.
Sunday: Morning pint on the radio
Companions: Stefan Dettl, lead singer and trumpeter of the successful band “La Brass Banda”.
(Photo: Franz Xaver Fuchs)
In 2015 Evi and Stefan Dettl from La Brass Banda founded the Radio Buh radio station, at that time purely in online format for streaming, since 2019 also audible on DAB+. Right from the start I moderated the Sunday morning pint there, formerly weekly, now twice a month at 11 a.m. The home base is in Grassau. I drive to the studio with records, CDs and a laptop in my luggage. Radio Buh broadcasts a varied program and primarily supports regional bands, artists and newcomers. Actually, I like having guests on the show that I can talk to. Today I’m alone in the studio presenting new songs. It’s always great to be able to create Sunday mornings for so many people.
Stefan Huber was born in Bad Reichenhall in 1987. The first instrument he learned was the Styrian accordion at the age of six and the tuba at 13. He then studied the instrument at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz. He became a teacher at the Musikum Salzburg and at the Musikschulwerk Oberösterreich, and later became a member of the Obermüller Musikanten, the house musicians in the Munich Hofbräuhaus. From 2014 to 2022 he was a tuba player with the brass band La Brass Banda, with whom he played and toured at many festivals. Meanwhile he also founded his own band, the band So&So with its own label. Since last year he has been teaching Styrian harmonica in the Auer music workshop in Hammerau near Berchtesgaden and is touring with his band in Bavaria.