Ira Gold, a member of the National Symphony bass section and a previous guest on the Contrabass Conversations podcast, is now on faculty at the Catholic University of America’s Benjamin T. Rome School of Music in Washington, D.C.

The school is accepting late applicants for Fall of ’08. If interested, students can either view information at music.cua.edu or contact Ira directly at irajgold@gmail.com. The school offers Bachelor, Master, and Doctorate degrees and also students have the option of being enrolled part time.

Catholic also welcomes videotapes, DVD’s and CD’s for applicants should they not be able to come to a live audition in the next month or so on such short notice. Contact Ira for more information or visit the website at the above URL.

Ira is an outstanding double bass performer and teacher with a sincere commitment to his students. I have played with Ira on several occasions in the IRIS Orchestra of Memphis, Tennessee, and he is a top-caliber player that also happens to be a deep thinker about double bass technique. Several of my students have mentioned to me how Ira’s interview opened up new possibilities for practicing and caused them to think differently about their musical progress. Ira has even helped some of my students to prepare pieces by listening to MP3s of their performances and offering advice. If he does that for bass students half a continent away, think what he’d do for his actual students!

Click the play button at the top of this post to listen to the first part of Ira’s interview (the actual interview starts about 7 minutes into the episode), or visit his Contrabass Conversations page for the entire interview and biographical information about Ira.

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