WHEN Trombones De Costa Rica take to the stage at the City Hall Theatre tonight and tomorrow night for a Bermuda Festival engagement, they'll share the spotlight with one of Bermuda's own - renowned tuba player Kenneth Amis.

The talented musician, who lives, teaches and practises in Boston and whose parents run a funeral home in Bermuda, sat down with photographer TONY CORDEIRO and reporter HEATHER WOOD this week to talk about - well, what else is there for a musician? - his love of music.

Q: How did you come to play the tuba?

A: I started taking piano lessons with Olivette Morris and I didn't like it that much actually. But when I got into high school, at Warwick Academy, I got into music class. They have an exam to see which students should be in music class and which students shouldn't.

I was accepted into music class and we were given our choice of instruments. I chose the trombone. About three weeks into school, one of the tuba players in the class decided he didn't want to do music. They needed a tuba player and I was the next person seated in line. So I ended up moving from trombone to tuba.

Q: And you were sold on it immediately?

A: At the time, there were movies coming out - The Empire Strikes Back, The Return of the Jedi - and I liked the music that was behind (them). So I gained an interest in classical music that way and started trying to write a little on my own and enjoyed playing the tuba a little bit more because of my newfound interest in music. And that's how I gained a love, or acquired a love, of the tuba.

Q: And then you decided to take your studies further?

A: Yeah. I went to a couple of summer camps before I left for college and then went to Boston University for my undergraduate degree. I got my bachelor's in music composition. And then I went to the New England Conservatory, which is also in Boston, and got my master's in music with a focus in composition.

Q: And today you work as a tuba player full-time?

A: I am a musician full-time. I play tuba with Empire Brass and freelance in the Boston area and am the assistant conductor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and I compose music. So right now I'm working on a commission by the Boston Classical Orchestra. So I've been doing that full-time for the past 12 years.

Q: How old are you?

A: Thirty-two.

Q: When did you first begin performing outside of school productions?

A: I suppose I started that before I left the island. I played in the (annual) Premier's Concert once as a solo tuba player with my piano teacher at the time. So I've been performing ever since then and I just can't get enough of it.

Q: Were you terrified the first time you went on stage?

A: No. (My fear) depends on how prepared I am. And I was pretty prepared back then. As you get older you get less time to prepare for stuff but hopefully you're a better player so you don't need as much time. I wouldn't say I was ever terrified, excited maybe.

Q: When was your first Bermuda Festival performance?

A: I performed in a brass quintet. We came here with the Empire Brass - the tuba player who was my teacher played with the Empire Brass - and we did a double brass quintet concert in the Cathedral in 1991. And then Empire Brass came here again and I came with them.

Q: What is Empire Brass?

A: A brass quintet - two trumpets, French horn, trombone, tuba - and we have our management in New York City although the musicians are scattered. A couple live in Florida and three of us live in Massachusetts.

But the group has been around for probably 32, 33 years. I studied with them when I went to Boston University. When I joined the group, we were still in residence at Boston University - I was teaching there at that time. It's got quite a legacy behind it and so I feel fortunate to be a part of the ensemble.

Q: And you're performing with . .?

A: The Trombones De Costa Rica, an ensemble based in Costa Rica. They started a festival a couple of summers ago for brass players because there wasn't one in Central America.

They did all the work. They solicited financial support from different companies and they hired four faculty members to come down and teach for a week. I think they had over 50 students from Central and South America. They were going to have a tuba player out of Los Angeles come down - however, he got pneumonia the week before the festival which was to start on a Sunday. I got a call on the Thursday that they wanted me to come down and teach.

It was the first time I'd heard the group. They played a concert. And I was very impressed with them. I brought home a CD and sent it to the Festival and said: "You should get these guys down here." And they did. And so they called me up last year and said how they'd like to feature me with the group.

Q: So you're part of Empire Brass and you're all scattered; Trombones De Costa Rica is based in Costa Rica, how do you practise together?

A: (In regard to Empire Brass), we don't like to practise. Ha, ha. We love to perform but we don't rehearse that much. We rehearse at the beginning of the season maybe a couple of times and then we rehearse a few times if we're going to make a recording. Other than that, three of the members - including myself - of the Empire Brass were once students of the Empire Brass.

So stylistically, we know how each piece is supposed to go even if we're sight reading it. So it doesn't take us long to put together music. And it's just so exciting onstage that everyone's got the focus needed to make it sound good even if we haven't rehearsed that much. So it works out well. And if you're on tour with people, it's kind of good, when you go home, not to be that close to them. Ha,ha.

I've never played with (Trombones De Costa Rica). I played at the festival but not with them. And the piece is brand-new. It was written for the Festival so we've never even heard the piece before. So it should be an exciting first concert.

Q: You mentioned a brief piano period, do you play any other instruments?

A: I wouldn't call myself a piano player, no. And I don't play any other instruments.

Q: Do you sing?

A: No.

Q: What do you do for fun?

A: That's a good question. It's become difficult because I have an 11 month old now, Jason. And he takes up a lot of time I've found, especially being my first child. Usually when I'm not on tour, I'm at home all day with him. And so nowadays I just play with him for fun.

Q: Your wife's name?

A: Beth.

Q: Is she a musician?

A: She went to school for music. That's how we met. At Boston University. She was a flute player. But she doesn't play professionally.

Q: I can't imagine that you have no other interests.

A: I have an interest in computers but only in a practical sense. In other words I like to put computers together and take them apart. I just finished putting together my most recent computer. But only because I'm going to use it. I wouldn't do it as a hobby just to see if I could do it. I wouldn't put it together unless I had a specific use for it.

It's not like (making) model planes where you can put them together and hang them on a wall. I wouldn't do that with a computer - put it together just to say: "Oh I can put a computer together." I put it together because I want to use it. It's better value to put it together myself (rather than buying one). Also, it's sort of satisfying.

Q: How many have you put together?

A: From scratch, this is my first one. But I've put together all the parts of a computer together before. Just not all at once. So this is the first one where I started from scratch. It took maybe a day and a half and then loading all the software, that took forever. But I wouldn't call that an interest that I have. I would call it an interest that's necessitated because of the work that I'm doing. Nowadays a musician who writes music usually has a computer and works on a computer a lot.

Q: So you really have no other interests?

A: Other than just normal things. I sit and watch TV. I do a little bit of reading, I don't know, that's about it. The reading I think comes from I'm writing a book now so it's part of the research.

Q: And is the book music related?

A: Yeah. It's music related. It's teaching other people how to write for brass instruments. Because I've gotten a lot of questions from people who come to concerts, especially brass players, who hear the arrangements and say: "Well, I don't know how to write for brass. What do I do?" So I felt maybe I could make some money passing this information on. So I'm doing research for that and I have interests in science. When I have the time, I read a lot of books on physics and stuff like that.

Q: I guess that's normal bed-time reading?

A: It's something to kill the time on airplanes.

Q: Are you a young tuba player?

A: I'm middle-aged I guess. Professionals start when they leave college, which in the States is 22. And a tuba player can have a career up to 65, maybe even 70. It depends on what kind of shape they're in.

Q: Exercises. What do you do?

A: Breathing exercises every morning. It's to help stretch out the muscles in the chest so you can breathe deeply and also to gain control of your diaphragm. For instance, hyperventilating is a problem sometimes with tuba players where you literally see stars. So if you're in good shape you can minimise that type of effect.

Q: Has that happened to you before?

A: Oh yeah. It happens to every tuba player.

Q: To the extent where you pass out?

A: Usually you won't pass out. I've never passed out. I've had a student of mine pass out while doing breathing exercises with him. He was getting over pneumonia and we were doing breathing exercises and I was doing the counting and he was doing the breathing and he just sort of fell over onto the couch and onto the floor. But he was fine.

Q: What about regular forms of exercise? Do you do any of those?

A: I don't. Simply because I don't have time. I used to. Some tuba players have the time to jog or swim but that's rare I think. If you look at most tuba players, they're the big, fat guys. And there's a reason for that.

When being assigned an instrument in school, usually it's the biggest guys that can actually carry the tuba. You're dealing with kids in grade school in the States - seven and eight year olds - and they have to carry this big instrument. So you don't pick the small girls.

Physically, it's too much to carry it. Let alone carry it and play it if they're in a marching band or whatever. So it's usually the biggest guy and the biggest guy usually means the fattest guy.

Q: How much does a tuba weigh?

A: They can be anywhere from 20 pounds to 32 pounds. Mine is about 24, 25 pounds.

Q: And what dictates your tuba size?

A: Simply speaking, it's the size of the sound. If you're playing with the symphony orchestra - a Russian piece - you'll want a much bigger sound than if you're playing solo with a piano.

Q: Were you excited about coming home to perform?

A: Yeah. It's always exciting. I don't get that much of an opportunity to come here and play professionally.

Q: Did your parents (owners of Amis Memorial Funeral Home) ever suggest that you get a "real job"? Or did they say: "Sure. Sounds like a great idea. Go off and become a tuba player?"

A: Not that they told me. They were always supportive which was strange because in the funeral director industry it's a custom for the son to take over the family business. But I never received that kind of pressure. Maybe it's because I have a sister. I don't know. They always seemed to encourage me to do whatever I felt I had to do. And it's worked out fine.