Double bassist Kate Nettleman, a previous Contrabass Conversations guest and a frequent extra musician with the Chicago Symphony and Minnesota Orchestra, has recetly accepted a position as Principal Bass of the Hong Kong Philharmonic. This is exciting news for Kate, and I am really happy that this outstanding musician has been put in place in such a prominent position.
A former member of the New World Symphony (along with frequent podcast collaborator John Grillo), Kate has been working for the past several years as a freelance musician, serving as Principal Bass of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and Assistant Principal Bass of the Elgin Symphony in addition to playing in many other ensembles in the area.
It’s sad for me personally to see Kate leave Chicago–she’s a wonderful colleague that I played with all the time, and she will be sorely missed here. Still, it is very cool that he has moved across the world (literally!) and is now Principal Bass of a major symphony orchestra.
Want to hear Kate’s story? Then listen to her Contrabass Conversations interview. She is a great interviewee with all sorts of interesting things to share from her career. Check it out!
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Great news! I’ve enjoyed listening to her interview when it came out and it’s nice to hear she’ll be joining a fine ensemble like the Hong Kong Phil. The cultural clash should also prove to be a worthy and lasting life experience. Congratulations, Kate!
Jason, have you ever thought on challenging her to create a blog of some kind where she could tell all about the experience for the time she’ll spent there? Focusing not only on the view of the daily life routine and its challenges for a westerner, but also (and specially) on cultural/arts general life and developement, the type of work of the orchestras there (as in rehearsals/schedules/concerts attendance and audience profile/programing/eastern take on western classical music/educational outreach prgrammes/venues/whatever more) and also musical academies, degrees, job opportunities for young graduates, etc.
It could provide endless information and not only be of great usefulness for everyone interested, as it could also bring closer together two apparentely different sides of the world and open the perspective of a whole new market for us to explore but timid in doing so out of sheer unawareness and knowledge. And also, lots of fun for us to read!
Maybe it could even feature interviews with the local major bass players there, kind of a Contrabass Conversations oriental outtake. You could branch out a franchise of the show!
There’s another north-american girl playing over ther (i think she still is, at least), although not in Honk Kong, but fairly near, in Hyogo, Japan. Her name is Meaghan Williams, she studied at Berlin with Michael Wolf. He can provede for her contact for sure. Maybe Kate can team up with her and create a much wider broad espectre of the Easten world of classical music and orchestra performance. Even if she doesnt’ accept the challenge of creating a blog, she can for sure appreciate any inputs Meaghan could provide.
But I’m sure you will be doing your very best to persuade her on embarking on this enterprise, and achieve that goal!
Best of luck! (for both! :mrgreen:)