TromboneChat

Do you know of good repertoire for 3 trombones and tuba when the orchestra has a small string section?

Verdi Nabucco overture. Starts with a low brass choir.

Are the strings a few good players or a few meh players?

There are 3 excellent conservatory trained violinists and other 8 others on more more intermediate level. Violas pretty darn good and cellos good throughout. good bass player. We did Nabucco this pasted concert and that worked very well. That's exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for. Thanks for understanding of the dilemma!

Do you have any woodwind players? Horns? Trumpets? Tympani?

Yep. It is an orchestra of winds by 2, 3 horns, 2 trumpets.

A lot of the rep for smaller orchestras is sans trombone so it's definitely tricky. One way to get around it is micing the string section for just a bit of sound reinforcement and then just play the regular repertoire.

I played with a community orchestra a few years ago. We did a lot of doubling other parts. Cello, viola, string bass, etc.

A lot of the late Romantic literature is pretty wind-heavy, although there are lots of pieces that still lack tuba. Some suggestions:

Brahms Academic Festival, Symphony 2
Borodin
Dvorak 7, 8
Franck Symphony in D
Sibelius (particularly Symphony 2)
Smetana
Suk
Tchaikovsky (we just did Capriccio Italien, but needs English Horn)
Weber, "Der Freischutz" (not Romantic, but should work with small strings, winds, and brass to trombones)