Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog

You are browsing the archives of 2006 December.

There was a great article in this Sunday’s Chicago Tribune Magazine about the rising cost of college tuition. The article profiles Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, a school ranked in the third tier of national colleges by U.S. News and World Report. Tuition costs have doubled at this school between 2000 [...]

Saint Peter’s Church in the Loop Concert Series Presents the Spirit of Gambo – A Chicago Consort of Viols
Saint Peter’s Church in the Loop , 110 West Madison Street , Chicago , IL 60602-4196
Wednesday, December 13, 2006 12:10PM

The Spirit of Gambo is a Chicago [...]

Double bassist Matt Heller is blogging again. Matt and I played together for the American-Russian Youth Orchestra and the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, and he attended graduate school here in Chicago a few years ago. He now plays double bass for the New World Symphony.
Matt’s blog is very literate and insightful, and it is [...]

Here is a video of a double bass player’s high school recital performance of Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen. I can’t find the player’s name on YouTube, but check out his profile here. This piece is becoming increasingly popular to play on the bass. Ever since Edgar Meyer recorded it the floodgates have opened and [...]

Here’s a news story about my home state from the Onion:

Overpopulation Concerns Force U.S. To Reopen South Dakota
WASHINGTON, DC—Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne announced yesterday that, in order to deal with a growing population that just… (read more)
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I love the Onion and read it all the time.

Greg Sarchet sent me a link to this video about the sate of education in America. It is a 20/20 episode called “Stupid in America” and is worth checking out:

I just added several new features to the Bass Page. At the top of the page are a whole bunch of tabs now which will guide you down into the catacombs of this blog. I will probably clean and tighten up these tabs over the next few weeks, but for now it should [...]

I just got word from Arizona State University double bass professor Catalin Rotaru that he will be releasing a new CD very soon. Catalin is an awesome player. He taught at the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point before taking his new position in Arizona. I will definitely be checking out his [...]

Playing Handel’s Messiah this weekend reminded me of this great clip that was circulating last year. After some digging around online I found it. Things aren’t going well for this chorus and orchestra anyway in this performance of the Messiah, but they are about to get much, much worse….
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This is an excerpt from a study that David M. Sickle published in the Winter 1990 edition of the International Society of Bassists journal. I thought it would be of interest to many of my readers. It is a survey of 53 North American orchestras and what repertoire (excerpts and solos) they [...]