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Blake

I am here for Friends

About Me

"Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight." (Benjamin Franklin 1706-1790)Hi My name is Blake Helander. Currently, I'm a musician/soldier/jet-setter/art-lover living in Germany with my lovely wife Marija. My day job is playing the tuba for America. I grew up in San Diego, the coolest city in the world and I also lived in New York City for four years. I enjoy the outdoors, running and cycling. Recently, I've traveled to Switzerland, France, England, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Kosovo, Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark and Finland. I'll be in Europe for at least a couple more years, but still want to stay in touch with old friends from the US. Currently, I'm a member of the US Army Europe Band and Chorus but I have also performed with the San Diego Symphony, the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra in Los Angeles, Speculum Musicae, New York City Ballet the Stamford (CT) Symphony, New York City Opera and the American Symphony. Get MySpace Layouts from nUCLEArcENTURy .COM OR create your own using MySpace profile editor !!!
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My Interests

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New tuba funk!

My Blog

Belgian Beer Ads!

I recently traveled to Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg with the US Army Europe Band for our annual Spring Tour. Being on the road was tough and unfortunately there was little time fo...
Posted by Blake on Tue, 08 Apr 2008 03:39:00 PST

livin the dream

CBS Sportsline is awesome. I’m loving the free March Madness games. I didn’t even have to set up an account to view them. Beautiful. I’m off today and watching my TV plus two comp...
Posted by Blake on Fri, 21 Mar 2008 11:18:00 PST

Amazing Music Documentary: "Heima" by Sigur Ros

Here's the link to the full-length feature film, which is currently a featured video on youtube:http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=lr4s7KeCbV8If you don't know about the Icelandic rock band Sigur Ros and l...
Posted by Blake on Sat, 08 Mar 2008 08:14:00 PST

R.I.P. Major Andy Olstead

Major Andy Olstead (US Army) died in Iraq recently while "attempting to get the enemy to surrender so we would not have to kill them" (according to one of his soldiers). He was an avid blogger and had...
Posted by Blake on Sat, 23 Feb 2008 12:07:00 PST

my trip to the States

Thanks to all my family and friends who took time to come and visit with me last week. I had an amazing time at the US Army Tuba Euphonium Conference in DC and seeing everybody in New York. I realiz...
Posted by Blake on Fri, 08 Feb 2008 10:34:00 PST

Paris

Marija and I took a very fast train to Paris and walked ourselves silly digging the sights and a whole lot of art (Picasso, Renoir, Degas, Monet Van Gogh, Da Vinci etc). The prices aren't that expens...
Posted by Blake on Mon, 21 Jan 2008 12:41:00 PST

Prague Blog

Believe the hype. Prague is amazing. Marija and I had an amazing time in this wonderful city. The prices are cheap and the dollar still goes a long way there. We stayed three nights in a great 4-s...
Posted by Blake on Mon, 24 Dec 2007 03:08:00 PST

check out my new music site

www.myspace.com/tubaguybhUnfortunately, there's no way to upload my music on this profile so I created a NEW myspace music page. It features my solo and brass quintet recordings and even a rock tune....
Posted by Blake on Sat, 01 Dec 2007 10:10:00 PST

Autumn Leaves

Here are some images and video from a beautiful day in the nature preserve near our home in Mannheim, Germany. ...
Posted by Blake on Mon, 05 Nov 2007 09:54:00 PST

Mnozil Brass

Check out this group called Mnozil Brass. This Austrian ensemble performs sold-out shows all over Europe. I attended their concert last week and their show is more like theater than a brass concert. I...
Posted by Blake on Sun, 21 Oct 2007 02:50:00 PST