THE 2009 Bermuda Festival of the Performing Arts is particularly special for one of island's finest musicians, tuba player and composer, Kenneth Amis. Although he lives abroad in the U.S., when he returns to Bermuda in February to play with the world-renown English Chamber Orchestra, it will be exactly 20 years since he first played with the group.

"The only other time I've played with the ECO was at the 1989 Bermuda Festival," said Mr. Amis. "After twenty years this performance is going to be exciting on so many levels."

Mr. Amis will be playing for three nights starting on Thursday, February 5, where he will be performing a tuba solo, Gordon Jacob's Suite for Tuba, with the orchestra. Conducted by Principal Guest Conductor Roy Goodman, the concert will also feature violinist So-Ock Kim, who has already made numerous acclaimed appearances with prestigious orchestras around the world.

For the second and third night of Mr. Amis' homecoming, he will be performing with the Empire Brass Quintet, the ensemble in which he has been a long-standing member. The group has gained the international reputation as North America's finest brass quintet and has a repertoire of classical music to jazz and Broadway.

Born and educated in Bermuda, Mr. Amis, grew up in Warwick and attended Paget Primary and Warwick Academy.

He started playing the tuba at age 11 and caught the music bug that has been with him his entire life.

"I had taken guitar lessons with the late Leon Jones and then piano lessons with Olivette Morris for many years before but never had much appreciation for classical music," Mr. Amis explained. "When I entered Warwick Academy and placed in the music class, I chose the trombone as the instrument I wanted to learn.

"After a couple of weeks one of the tuba players in my class decided he didn't want to have to drag 20-plus pounds of metal around for the next five years and dropped out of the class.

"The band director at the time, Warren Jones, seeing some hidden potential in me - or, more likely, in need of a another tuba player more than a trombonist - decided to move me one chair over and I ended up with a tuba in my lap."

His musical prowess took him from the shores of Bermuda only two years later, at the age of 13 when he began attending prestigious music camps in America.

"I start travelling abroad to summer music camps after my second year of high school; I was 13," Mr. Amis, who's parents still live in Warwick, explained. "My parents were very good at researching the various international offerings. My first summer I attended the Salvation Army's Star Lake Music Camp in New York, my second summer was spent at The Juilliard School's pre-college camp, Estherwood Music Festival; and the last two summers before entering college I spent at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute in Massachusetts."

Upon entering university in Boston, Mr. Amis pursued his interest and talent in another area of music: composition. In fact, he composed his first piece of music, Suite for Bass Tuba, at age 15.

"Although the tuba was my declared principal instrument throughout most of my schooling, most of my training is, technically speaking, not for playing the tuba," he explained. "I did pass through the eight grades of the Royal Schools of Music curriculum for both theory and tuba and was granted a Licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music on tuba; however, my Bachelor's degree from Boston University and Master's degree from New England Conservatory are both in music composition."

The tuba maestro has spent most of his formidable and adult years abroad - as he says, from the time Eddie Murphy's movie Beverly Hills Cop 2 was released, which was in 1987. Now, in his late 30s, Mr. Amis is a musical entrepreneur, tours with the world with Empire Brass and spreads his knowledge and passion for the musical arts to others.

"I currently enjoy a mixed bag of musical activities," he said. "I currently teach at Boston University, the Boston Conservatory and Longy School of Music as well as conduct at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Conservatory at Lynn University in Florida. "As you'll see this February, I am still touring as the tuba player with the Empire Brass and composing music. I am the tuba player of the Palm Beach Opera Orchestra in Florida and I own a publishing and online retail company at AmisMusicalCircle.com."

Music aficionados in Bermuda will have the pleasure of hearing Mr. Amis' work when he returns for the Festival.

"It's always a pleasure to come back to Bermuda to perform, especially at the Festival," he said. "The Bermuda Festival of the Performing Arts offered me one of my first professional engagements many years ago which makes this trip feel even more like a homecoming."

A very special treat is in store for concert-goers as Amis' Empire Brass Quintet will perform a musical piece that Amis composed himself. Entitled The Scent of Paradise, the work was commissioned by the Bermuda Festival to commemorate Bermuda's 400th anniversary and will be performed on both nights.

In response to question about what people can look forward to, his response was: "As the old saying goes, 'Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.' I was not commissioned to specifically write a celebratory piece for Festival but to compose something that relates more generally to Bermuda. For those who would like to know what that meant to me, I look forward to seeing you at the concerts!"

Tickets can be purchased online at www.bermudafestival.org and be printed at home.

Patrons without internet access can call (441) 232-2255. For the first time this year, callers in Canada and the US can purchase tickets toll-free by calling the Bermuda Festival Call Centre on 1-800-309-8497. Call Centre hours are Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. during weekends. There is a $3 per ticket charge for purchasing tickets by phone.

Tickets are also being sold at both BdaTix's ticket centres, located at Transact (Internet Lane, Reid Street, Hamilton) and at Picture Perfect (Heron Bay Plaza, Southampton). Both ticket centres are open during regular business hours from Monday to Saturday.