George Vance Memorial Summer Bass Workshop 7/6-10

The influential double bass pedagogue George Vance passed away last year after a bout with pancreatic cancer. Influenced by Suzuki, George codified an approach to teaching younger bassists that has influenced countless players and teachers (myself included–I use his materials with all of my younger students). Here’s some information about the workshop:
George Vance Memorial Summer Bass Workshop 2010
Silver Spring, MD, 301-588-9275, summerbassworkshop@gmail.com
July 6-10 2010
Day workshop for bassists desiring an intense study of the bass with master teachers. Workshop under direction of Martha and Sam Vance in cooperation with Institut International Francois Rabbath.
Francois Rabbath in recital Friday July 9, 2010
All ages are welcome; parents must attend with children younger than 16.
Daily schedule includes: master class, bass choir, group lesson, participatory lecture/demo, improvisation, evening faculty concert.
Faculty includes: Francois Rabbath, David Young,Ted Botsford, Tracy Rowell, Etienne LaFrance, Hans Sturm, John Hamil, Lloyd Goldstein, Nicholas Walker, Ira Gold, Christian Laborie, Gilles Duhaut.
Photos from the Chicago Bass Festival
Here’s a sampling of images from the 2010 Chicago Bass Festival, which was held on February 7th at Ravinia’s Bennett-Gordon Hall in Highland Park, IL. More pics (and videos!) to follow shortly!
Here I am introducing the clinicians. Spot any familiar faces? There are at least 4 or 5 former Contrabass Conversations guests:

Check out how packed the lobby was! We had 130 participants, 30 clinicians, and another 40 or 50 vendors, siblings, and parents roaming the two levels of this facility:

I like this shot of all the cases piled in the balcony:

Here’s a shot of Trevor Jones of Molehill giving a clinic on managing your own music:

Michael Hovnanian arriving, well-bundled for the winter weather:

The Chicago Bass Ensemble performing, one of six events happening simultaneously at the 2 pm time slot:

More to come, and we hope to see you there next year!
The Chicago Bass Festival organizers
Here’s a great photo of the Chicago Bass Festival “brain trust” (me, Jerry Fuller, and Allan Dennis). Though the three of us did the foundational panning, we had dozens of helpers along the way. Hope to see you for the next festival on February 6, 2011!

PS – Please send me photos/videos if you were at the event and got some footage! You can email them to me at jasonheathbasspage – at- gmail.com.
Golden Gate Bass Camp 7/19-25/10
The 2010 Golden Gate Bass Camp will be taking place this summer from July 19-25, and it sure looks like a great lineup to me, with faculty such as Barry Green (former Contrabass Conversations guest), David Murray (also a former CBC guest), Kristin Korb (another former CBC guest), San Francisco Symphony principal bassist Scott Pingel, John Kennedy (the International Society of Bassists president-elect), and Richard Duke, a great SF Bay Area bassist who also happens to be my old friend from Northwestern University and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.

Looks like a great faculty lineup in an awesome setting–register here.
Chicago Bass Festival Wrap-Up
The first (but certainly not the last!) Chicago Bass Festival was held this past Sunday (2/7/10), and was by all accounts a resounding success. With 130 registered participants, 6 vendors, 30 clinicians, and another 60 parents and siblings, we packed Ravinia’s beautiful Bennett-Gordon Hall like you wouldn’t believe!
We’ll be doing an online survey within the week to see what went well and what could be improved upon for next year. The first year for an event like this is always a stressful and unpredictable affair, but there were suprisingly few bumps in the road, and we’ll work on those areas for next year.
If you were in attendance and got photos, videos, etc., you’d be doing me a huge favor if you sent me them. I’d love to put all the footage folks got and dump it on the Chicago Bass Festival website. If you dump video on YouTube (andi hope you do!), send me a link and I’ll embed it on the site.
You can send stuff to jasonheathbasspage -at- gmail.com.
If you didn’t make it out, I hope to see you there next year on February 6, 2011 (mark your calendar!) for the next Chicago Bass Festival!











