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Archive for July, 2009

Bass Openings at Idyllwild Arts Academy for 2009-10

Yazan: Jason | 21 July 2009 | No Comments
Categories: bass, education

Peter Askim, conductor for the Idylwild Arts Academy (and a heck of a bassist and composer–check out his Contrabass Conversations interview for more information) still has some openings for double bass students for the 2009-10 academic year. This is a wonderful opportunity to study bass with San Diego Symphony Principal Bassist Jeremy Kurtz (a former [...]

PBDB: Beware the Outliers, Part 2

Yazan: jeffweisner | 21 July 2009 | 2 Comments
Categories: Jeff Weisner

(crossposted from PBDB) In my last post, I defined what “outlier” means and how it applies to bass playing. In this post I’ll make some comments on how we all can cope with, and learn from, outliers – whether we are one or we are learning from one. If you are a student, you need [...]

Rachmaninoff Vocalise played by Duquesne University student

Yazan: Jason | 21 July 2009 | 2 Comments
Categories: bass, bass videos

Duquesne University features bass teachers Micah Howard and Jeff Turner. Jeff Turner is the Principal Bass for the Pittsburgh Symphony and is also a former Contrabass Conversations guest, and this video features a student of Duquesne performing the Rachmaninoff Vocalise on his Junior recital: [From YouTube - Rachmaninoff Vocalise]

Dramatic Double Bass Destructions

Yazan: Jason | 20 July 2009 | 8 Comments
Categories: bass, bass humor, crazy gig stories

I was sharing stories of horrific double bass destructions with the students in the low string methods class I was teaching at DePaul this past spring, and I realized that I actually had two tales (not about me, luckily!) that I hadn’t yet shared on the blog: Look Behind You! One of my students was [...]

Vacation time

Yazan: Jason | 19 July 2009 | 2 Comments
Categories: travel

I’ll be heading off for a much-anticipated vacation these next few weeks. My wife and I are headed out to South Dakota, first to visit my folks and then heading out to Hot Springs in the southern Black Hills, and finally heading down to Albuquerque, New Mexico. We’ve done this trip pretty much every summer [...]