The hearty notes from a tuba started echoing through the streets of downtown Bangor a little past 4 p.m. on Tuesday.
Familiar tunes like “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” and other holiday favorites seemed like disembodied melodies until Frank DeMauro appeared from around a corner with his tuba.
DeMauro, 26, walked laps around West Market Square, then headed down Merchants Plaza and back around Main Street despite the chilly temperatures.
Originally from Virginia, DeMauro recently moved to Bangor, where he works as a psychiatric technician at the Northern Light Acadia Hospital. But when he’s not working his passion is music, and he wanted to practice his newly acquired tuba, an instrument he’s played since the sixth grade.
“I can’t really practice in my apartment, so I figured, why not go around and try to make people’s day a little bit better and play some music?” he said.
As he walked, occasional passerbys stopped to record quick videos or snap pictures. People working in offices flocked to the windows to see DeMauro as the string lights around the light poles reflected off the shiny tuba.
“I’ve just been going off of my memory. I haven’t played Christmas music in a few years,” he said.
Along the way, he changed up the songs, at one point doing a tuba rendition of “Jingle Bells.”
“I used to major in music when I was in school in Virginia, but I decided to transfer and major in psychology,” DeMauro said. “I still love the music. So I like to walk around playing.”