Where would we be without double bass composers? These four individuals have made great strides in promoting the double bass and innovating musically. We have more composers in our Contrabass Conversations archives–just dig through and see who else strikes your fancy:

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Active as a composer, conductor and bassist, Peter Askim is the Music Director and Composer-in-Residence of the Idyllwild Arts Academy. He has been a member of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra and served on the faculty of the University of Hawaii-Manoa, where he directed the Contemporary Music Ensemble and taught theory and composition.

Dave Anderson

Dave’s compositions span the gamut from solo double bass to full symphony orchestra, and his Concerto for Double Bass was commissioned and premiered by Hal Robinson and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He is a former board member of the International Society of Bassists, and his Capriccio No. 2 served as the required solo competition piece at the 1997 ISB convention.

Donovan Stokes

An active soloist, composer, and clinician Stokes is a specialist in the use of amplified and electronically manipulated double bass and performs regularly both as a soloist and a sideman in a variety of musical genres, venues and collaborations.

Bjorn Berkhout

Dr. Berkhout’s music has received attention at many national and international festivals including June in Buffalo, Music Ninety-Eight in Cincinnati, the New Music Symposium 2001 at the Domaine Forget in Canada, and the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt, Germany. His music has been recognized through many international awards and contests. In 2005 he was selected as one of six semifinalists for the prestigious Raymond and Beverly Sackler Music Composition Prize. In 2004 he was the winner of the Omaha Symphony Guild’s International Composition Contest for his work REM, a Lucid Dream Fantasy for solo cello and two chamber orchestras. His work Visual Sound, which had its premier in Amsterdam, was nominated for the Gaudeamus Prize 2000 and his work Zapstar was one of six works selected for the ALEA III 2003 International Composers Contest.

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