Route 3

 Feeling a bit “bah humbug” after the holidays? Put yourself “On the Sunny Side of the Street” with Route 3, a “Jazz from J to Z” concert sponsored by the Twin Cities Jazz Society on Jan. 24 (3 p.m.) at the Bloomington Center for the Arts. Featuring uplifting tunes from the 1930s, the four-piece Route 3 (vocals, banjo, tuba and percussion), led by tuba master Ralph Hepola, will put a smile on your face and warm you from head to toe—even if, baby, it’s cold outside.

  St. Paul native Ralph Hepola played piano before taking up tuba at age 12. As a teen, Hepola won a position with The United States Army Band of Washington, DC, and later won a full scholarship to the Manhattan School of Music in the Young Artist Competition of the Minnesota Orchestra/WAMSO. He earned his degree in music at Northwestern University. After college, he worked in Europe for five years including playing in the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Music Festival. Back in the U.S., Hepola freelanced for two years in New York. Today, he performs on three tubas, bass trombone, bass trumpet, cimbasso (Italian contrabass trombone) and piano, and is Principal Tubaist with the Minnesota Opera. He’s performed in numerous opera productions in the U.S. and Europe, appears on dozens of recordings, and has played with national Broadway touring companies at major Twin Cities theatres, as well as at the Spoleto Festival USA, Children’s Theater in Minneapolis, and Guthrie Theater. Most recently, Community Partners in the Arts (COMPAS) awarded Hepola a McKnight Foundation Community Art Program Grant to present eight concerts in 2009 and 2010 with his group, Route 3. Hepola is also a dedicated educator, an adjunct instructor at Hamline and on the educators’ roster of the Minnesota State Arts Board.