Alexandria’s world champion whistler Chris Ullman has his sights — and lips — set on whistling at an NFL game and before the Pope.
Ullman, the subject of a recent Wall Street Journal profile, sat down with ALXnow to talk about being a four-time national and international whistling champion (1994, 1996, 1999 and 2000) and the author of the memoir “Find Your Whistle.” Ullman has whistled for President George W. Bush and top administration officials in the oval office, on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno and “The Today Show” with Katie Couric, at Major League Baseball games, college basketball games, with jazz bands and symphony orchestras, and even a funeral.
Ullman didn’t rely on his hobby for survival, working instead for decades in public relations. His career includes stints as the director of public relations for The Carlyle Group, as well as director of communications for the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the congressional Committee on the Budget, and multiple members of Congress.
The Long Island, N.Y., native grew up with Strauss waltzes playing constantly on the family record player. He says that he seriously got into whistling between ages 13 and 16, whistling two hours a day delivering newspapers on his bike. While attending Binghamton University, Ullman said he got his first shot at performing in a talent show before a large audience. The talent show was in a dining hall with hundreds of students in attendance and Ullman whistled a medley of Billy Joel hits.
Ullman has had a long career in public relations in D.C. and now owns his own firm and works out of the ALX Community office on the waterfront in Old Town. Now 63, Ullman says he is considering a new goal after retiring: whistling the national anthem at every Major League Baseball park in the country.
ALXnow: How did you learn to whistle?
Ullman: My father was a whistler, and my favorite music to whistle is Strauss waltzes, and so I heard those a lot as a child. He taught me how to whistle, and I’d follow him around while he did projects around the house.
But then I really buckled down from 13 to 16. I whistled two hours every day while delivering newspapers. I actually started whistling all this classical music, because my whole youth, my parents had these albums. It was Strauss waltzes and a collection of music called 120 Masterpieces.
ALXnow: Do you have a special diet before performances?
Ullman: I prefer not to eat before performing. That said, at a minimum nothing sticky or spicy. Also, no kissing before a performance. It makes my lips mushy.
ALXnow: When was the first time you performed in front of a big audience?
Ullman: There was a big talent show with like 700 people in this huge dining hall as part of our dorm complex. They were a little skeptical at first. No one had ever heard of a serious whistler. I did a medley of Billy Joel songs. I was so nervous, my lips had an artificial vibrato, and one of my legs was just shaking uncontrollably… I was astounded at how much people loved it, and I got off the stage and people were like, “That was awesome, man!”
ALXnow: What did your dad think?
Ullman: He was very proud. He later came to some of the whistling competitions I was in and whistled a song with me onstage called Dueling Banjos.
ALXnow: Does whistling drive your wife crazy?
Ullman: That’s a sensitive subject. My wife has this sound sensitivity, like high-pitch sounds bother her. I do my best not to whistle around her. It’s always been a little burr in the saddle, but I respect it and I understand it.
ALXnow: How did you get on the path to being a world whistling champion?
Ullman: In 1992, I hear that there is a competition, and a friend of mine — and this is pre-internet — she finds there is the National Whistler’s Convention in Lewisburg, North Carolina. It was started in 1973 by some guy who didn’t even whistle.
So there’s two categories — popular music and classical. Popular is anything that’s not classical. I come in second in the pop category, and I did “In the Mood” by Glenn Miller. After that I got really pumped up, and I went back in 1994 and won and all hell broke loose. I was on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and the Today Show with Katie Couric.
ALXnow: How did you end up whistling for President George W. Bush?
Ullman: The whole thing is just so bizarre. I worked in the Executive Office of the President, but not in the White House proper. I was not in Bush’s orbit, but a friend of mine, Ari Fleischer, was the White House spokesman, and he asked me to whistle “Happy Birthday” for then-White House Chief of Staff Andy Card.
So, I whistle for Andy Card, and Karl Rove is in there, and (former Secretary of State) Condi Rice is there. A week later I walk into a staff meeting and Mitch Daniels — the former director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget — is there and says that the president was asking about me and heard about my whistling. A week later, I walk into the staff meeting and Mitch says, ‘Meeting canceled. We’re going to the Oval [Office] to whistle for the president.”
ALXnow: When was this?
Ullman: This was July 20, 2001. It’s an iconic day in my mind. As we’re walking over there, I said, “What should I whistle?” and he says, “Well, you’ve got some standards, don’t you? ‘God Bless America?’ Just don’t do ‘Hail To The Chief.’ He doesn’t like that song.”
We walk into the Oval Office and he (President Bush) is sitting at his desk with his feet up on it with an unlit cigar in his hand. He jumps up, comes around and greets me and asks where I learned to whistle, if I needed some water, if I sit or stand. I asked him what he liked, and he said, “Well, not Bach,” which was bizarrely specific, and he says, “Country western.”
ALXnow: What did you whistle?
Ullman: I did the Lone Ranger song, which is the William Tell Overture by Rossini. He was happy and tells me to do more. I did like five or six songs, and (Vice President) Cheney walks in. Like 10 people came in. Word got out fast in the West Wing.
ALXnow: How long were you in there?
Ullman: About 25 minutes. The significance of that moment didn’t really become evident to me till years later, when I had a chance to do a TEDx talk (see below). I’m not curing cancer, I’m not climbing Mount Everest blind. I don’t couch it as such. I just, it’s a little thing. I’m good at it, put a lot of work into it, and it brings joy to people. Because of that, I’ve started sending Happy Birthday messages in whistling to people.
ALXnow: What are some of the whistling mountaintops you’d like to reach?
Ullman: I think the Pope is in there. I’ve never done a WNBA game. I’ve never done hockey, either. I’ve done a lot of college ball, college games, MLB, lots of those, a bunch of NBA games, but no NFL, no soccer. Also, I’m going to retire in a couple years, and I might have a quest to just whistle at every MLB ballpark in America.
