I hope that you all enjoyed this week’s Contrabass Conversations episode featuring an interview with Scott Rosenthal, a pit musician veteran here in Chicago’s musical theater scene, as well as some Bottesini from the always excellent Stefano Sciascia. If you missed it, just check out the episode here, or click the Blubrry Player button in the sidebar. You can play the episode and continue to surf the net uninterrupted.

We’ve got several new projects launching this week which should prove to be very interesting and engaging to double bassists everywhere. Here’s a quick run-down:

• Virtual lessons with Andy Anderson – Lyric Opera and Grant Park Symphony bassist and double bass instructor at the Chicago College of Performing Arts Andy Anderson has put together a set of outstanding videos on double bass technique, ranging from fundamental subjects like balancing the bass comfortably to advanced bowing concepts. Look for this on the blog, the podcast, and YouTube in the next few days.

• Analyzing orchestra excerpts with John Grillo – John Grillo, a frequent collaborator on the podcast, is working with me to create a show covering many of the major double bass orchestral excerpts. We’ll talk about them–how to approach them from a technical and musical standpoint, what stylistic differences need to be brought out, the historical framework for the pieces, and much more–and you will then get to hear John play each of these excerpts. We’ll release this as a complete episode containing all the excerpts and also probably split it up so that listeners can easily access our conversation and musical examples for each individual excerpt.

• Chicago Chamber Musicians concert showcase – Complete performances of chamber works featuring the double bass from a world-class ensemble comprised of Chicago Symphony musicians. Sounds good to me!

• Miloslav Gajdos audio and video episodes – We’ve got great audio footage from the incomparable Miloslav Gajdos as well as many more video episodes coming soon. Outstanding material from an outstanding player.

• Ranaan Meyer video episode – Look for a video featuring Ranaan Meyer, the excellent bassist from Time for Three, very soon. He will be performing “I’m Tryin'”, one of his original compositions.

I think that you all will really enjoy these exciting new projects!