University professors - highlights from Contrabass Conversations
Many of our Contrabass Conversations guests hold faculty positions at prominent universities. Actually, most (if not all) of the guests we’ve had on the program have done at least some university teaching, so this is not going to be a comprehensive list but rather a means to get you started learning more about some of [...]
Pedagogical Resources for Double Bassists
In addition to featuring nearly 100 interviews with seasoned professional bassists on Contrabass Conversations, we have also released several innovative pedagogical resources which have proven to be quite popular. These types of projects are what makes this kind of content distribution (over the Internet, free of charge, accessible to anyone worldwide) extremely exciting and useful:
Orchestral [...]
Short Takes for 6/24/08
MYA Saxophone Quartet featured on From The TopThe What’s Cookin’ Saxophone Quartet, made up of Midwest Young Artists members Amanda Peterson, Mira DeJong, Kateri Tumminello, and Joshua Plotner, was recently featured of NPR’s program From The Top. I do a lot of work with this metropolitan Chicago program–I host their weekly podcast at WMYA.fm, and [...]
Ripping Off Your Teachers
I’ve got story for you, and I promise it’s true!
When I was getting started as a freelance musician at the tail end of my masters degree, I was quaking in my boots about my future prospects. After all, I was regularly buying CDs at Borders and Barnes and Noble from former Northwestern doctoral music students. [...]
CBC 83: Jack Budrow interview part 3
We’re concluding our chat with Michigan State University and Interlochen Arts Academy double bass instructor Jack Budrow this week on Contrabass Conversations. In addition to helping place students in major orchestras across the globe, Jack has had a very distinguished performance career as a former member of the Houston Symphony, Santa Fe Opera Orchestra, and [...]
Top Ten Ways That College Debt Screws Up Your Life.. and How to Avoid It!
A recent article in the Chicago Tribune (May 28, 2008) reignited some long-standing concerns that I’ve had for a longtime about the massive amount of educational debt many musicians accrue during their years of training. This trend is affecting all college students (not only musicians), but since our earnings tend to be rather meager compared [...]
CBC 81: Students Speak Out
We’re changing up the podcast format for today’s show and featuring a group of present and former members of the Midwest Young Artists program located on the North Shore of Lake Michigan in metro Chicago. As an educator, I find it very interesting to hear the perspective of younger bassists–what they enjoy about performing, if [...]
The Babbling Conductor
I’m skating on thin ice with this post! The classical music world is surprisingly small, after all, and anydisparaging talk about conductors, even in the most anonymous terms, is likely to trickle back to the source. For my sake (I like to get hired back for gigs I play!), please keep the following points in [...]
Tasty Blog Snacks for 5/16/08
We’ve had all sorts of interesting things going on behind the scenes at Bass Blog HQ (which currently happens to be a coffee shop in north Evanston), starting with an interview with the fabulous Kristin Korb. I’ll be recording and editing this episode today and will be launching it tomorrow morning, so stay tuned! In [...]
Kristin Korb on Contrabass Conversations, plus an Interlochen Arts Academy primer for double bassists
One of the cool things about doing a weekly interview podcast is watching this body of work grow over the weeks, months, and years. After 1 1/2 years of doing Contrabass Conversations, we’ve got quite a body of content (approaching 100 interview shows, plus numerous video lessons, all-music shows, and special feature episodes), and this [...]
