Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog

You are browsing the archives of 2007 May.

I recently found this great video online featuring a performance of bass soloist and Contrabass Conversations guest François Rabbath’s composition Poucha Dass. This is a home recording by a user named tonibottesini. Very nice playing and camera work–let’s hope that this user keeps posting videos up for the bass community!

Related Posts:

François Rabbath [...]

While poking around online recently, I found an older article from Indiana University bass professor and Contrabass Conversations guest Lawrence Hurst:

The modern double bass is not a true member of either the violin or viol families. Most likely its first general shape was that of [...]

Michael Hovnanian’s recent blog post about Haitink (which I posted about yesterday) just got featured on the popular classical music blog On An Overgrown Path. Check it out here.
Related Posts:

Left hand exercises from Michael Hovnanian
Chicago Bass Ensemble
Max Dimoff warm-ups
Interesting discussion in comments of CSO Bass Blog
Musical examples on CSO Bass Blog

Singapore bass bloggers PY and Emily are going to be invloved in a bass quartet performance. Deails follow:
In Conjunction with Singapore Arts Festival: d’Bassists.
Venue: Esplanade Concourse, Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay, SingaporeDate: 30 and 31 May 2007 (Wed and Thu)Time: 7.30 p.m. - 8.00 p.m. and 8.45 p.m. - 9.15 p.m. on both [...]

This is a guest post by double bassist Jean-Yves Bénichou. Benjy is bi-national, being a citizen of both the United States and France. He has lived in France for the past 30 years and has been a member of the Strasbourg Philharmonic since 1985. He studied double bass at Temple University with Edward Arian and [...]

I’d like to thank readers for all of the great comments (both via e-mail and through the comments on the blog) about the most recent installment of Road Warrior Without an Expense Account. This information and perspective on the music performance degree curriculum at most music schools is in dire need of change, and I [...]

Chicago Symphony double bassist and CSO Bass Blog blogger Michael Hovnanian wrote a recent post about the dynamic between the Chicago Symphony and Bernard Haitink. It sounds like the working atmosphere has improved considerably in the Chicago Symphony since the departure of Daniel Barenboim:

For years around here ‘artistry’ has been so firmly linked to [...]

Bassists who are feverishly practicing for audition x, y, or z this month may want to take a break and head on over to Matt Heller’s recent post containing some unusual audition advice from Philip Myers, principal horn of the New York Philharmonic.
Here are the main points of Phil’s audition advice talk:
1. Don’t practice [...]

Here’s a version of the first movement of the Capuzzi Double Bass Concerto performed by high school junior Alejandro Bustillos for the District Music Contest at Omaha South High School. He is accompanied by pianist Sara Kellerman. The bass comes through much more clearly than on the Swedish Capuzzi video with orchestra that [...]

In Part VIII of Road Warrior Without an Expense Account, the topic of freelancer burnout was discussed. This is a depressing and all-too-frequent result of engaging in this type of work, and the solution to this situation is quite complicated.

Actually, this whole topic becomes quite depressing, and the more one thinks about [...]