Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog

This is a post from double bassist from Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music student Nicholas Hart. Nick will be contributing weekly posts to the bass blog about life as a music student in one of the nation’s most exclusive programs. I think readers will find this different perspective on the double bass world and the [...]

I often wondered as I entered the classical music freelance world how one could possibly put together an income in this business. Some politically smart auditions I took my last year of graduate school helped me join the Chicago freelance scene fairly smoothly, allowing me to play with the best groups in the [...]

 

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Hope you all enjoy episode 13 of Contrabass Conversations! This week we are featuring music of double bassist Donovan Stokes and an interview with Weldon Anderson. Enjoy!

Show Notes
Length: 58:35
website: contrabassconversations.com
e-mail: contrabassconversations@gmail.com
voicemail: 206-666-6509
blog: www.doublebassblog.com
Download the episode here
This episode features the first part of an interview that
Jason recently did with double bassist Weldon Anderson. [...]

Hope you all enjoyed last week’s episode of Contrabass Conversations. If you didn’t catch it (or want to listen to any older episodes), just click the ‘Contrabass Conversations‘ tab at the top of this blog.
This week we bring you a great interview with double bassist Kathryn Nettleman. Kate and I also recently recorded [...]

Pianist Josh Nemith wrote a recent post highlighting a study done by Northwestern University (my alma mater) on the positive effects of musical study on the auditory system and the brain stem’s ability to track and analyze certain sounds:

A new study by Northwestern University researchers suggests that Mom was right when she insisted that you [...]

This is a post from double bassist from Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music student Nicholas Hart. Nick will be contributing weekly posts to the bass blog about life as a music student in one of the nation’s most exclusive programs. I think readers will find this different perspective on the double bass world and the music [...]

Double bassist Kathryn Nettleman recently left a great comment on my Advice for Aspiring Music Performance Majors post. Kate has been a member of a full-time orchestra (The Naples Philharmonic), a member of the New World Symphony, and has performed with countless major symphony orchestras. Recent engagements include the Chicago Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, [...]

What, exactly, is a “regional” orchestra? For the purposes of this article, regional orchestras will be defined as organizations that employ professional musicians but do not offer a salary and other benefits of full-time employment. The organizational structure is virtually identical to the full-time symphony orchestra and is quite different from the community [...]

This is the fourth installment of my Road Warrior without an Expense Account series. The intent of this installment is to highlight the increased competition for the progressively decreasing full-time orchestral positions. The statistics I present here are only theoretical and may certainly differ from the exact number or audition openings and candidates, but [...]

My most recent installment in my series on freelancing features a discussion of the emergence of the the modern symphony orchestra as a full-time employer. If you are interested in the details of modern orchestral funding and the implications of this kind of model, check out ‘Who Killed Classical Music?’ by Norman Lebrecht. [...]