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Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Tuba Toting: Campbell resident Tony Clements has been using his motorcycle to carry his tuba to his job at the San Jose Symphony for the past two decades.
Public Citizen
Horn of Plenty
By Erin Mayes
As a third-grader growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y., Tony Clements was given a musical aptitude test. He was asked what instrument he would like to play, and knowing the name of only one, he wrote down "saxophone."
The day instruments were handed out to students, Clements stayed home sick. When he returned, the only one left was the tuba.
"It was preordained," he says. "It was meant to be."
Sometimes his father, who was a mail carrier, dropped off the massive tuba at Clements' school in the mornings and picked it up in the afternoons. But sometimes Clements took the bus, tuba in tow, and will never forget the bus driver's question each time she saw him--"Couldn't you play the flute?"
Today, the 15-year Campbell resident is in his 21st season as principal tuba player with the San Jose Symphony and says he's living an enchanted life.
"I get paid to play the tuba--what a gas. There is only one tuba player in each orchestra, and there [are] hundreds of tuba players who are out of work," he says. "It's easier to become a pitcher in the big leagues than it is to be a tuba player in the symphony."
When he first auditioned for the San Jose Symphony, Clements competed against 40 other tuba players for the position. It only took him one try to be chosen.
His life hasn't always been so enchanted, though. When he first struck out on his own in Los Angeles, he only had enough money for rent and car insurance and was living on 7UP and crackers.
He played the drums in a band, which is how he saved up enough money to buy his first tuba. He never finished college and jokes that he was on the eight-year plan and quit after seven.
But after some scrimping and scraping, Clements got his break with the symphony. By now, he has played for many symphonies in California, six different musicals and several ballets. He's responsible for the tenor tuba, the bass trumpet and the contrabass trombone for the San Jose Symphony and just started teaching at San Jose State University as a visiting lecturer.
Clements, 47, says he defies the stereotype of a "straight-laced symphony guy," and it's hard to argue. He might be the last person one would expect to see down in the orchestra pit after watching him dismount from his Harley Davidson and pull his hair back into a ponytail (not for appearance' sake, but so he doesn't suck hair into his mouth while he's playing).
He and his wife, Linda, also a musician, belong to the International Brotherhood of Motorcycle Campers.
"They couldn't care less if you show up or not," Clements says of the group's events, adding that's the way he likes it because, "I'm not a joiner."
Linda teaches music at a middle school in Los Gatos, and at one time taught at Campbell Middle School.
"She likes to say she can get through Book One on any instrument," Clements says, referring to Linda's ability to play a wide range of instruments on an elementary level, at the very least. Her instrument of choice for the time being is the French horn.
The two have been married for 14 years and have decided they don't want children.
"I'm kind of selfish and self-indulgent," he says, although he says he is very approachable to kids and spoils his nephews, much to his brother's chagrin.
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Campbell, California
