Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog

On February 25th, the Composer’s Datebook featured history on the Koussevitzky Concerto as well as works by Edgar Meyer.
Recordings include:
Serge Koussevitsky (1874-1951): Doublebass ConcertoGary Karr, double bass; Berlin Radio Symphony; Uros Lajovic, cond. Koch-Schwann 11063 &Edgar Meyer (b. 1960): QuintetEdgar Meyer, double bass; Emerson String Quartet DG 453 506
You can hear the program by [...]

 

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We’re continuing our chat with Cincinnati Symphony principal bassist Owen Lee today on Contrabass Conversations. Check out the first segment of this conversation on episode 55 of the program. Owen played for the New World Symphony and the Houston Symphony prior to his appointment with the Cincinnati Symphony, and it was a [...]

People often ask me how much time I spend working on doublebassblog.org,  Contrabass Conversations, Arts Addict, and my other online endeavors.  While I certainly put in a significant amount of time on all these projects, they have grown organically over time and have interwoven so tightly into my other daily activities (playing and teaching the [...]

Here’s a great glimpse into the future generation of teachers and learners!  Listen to the way that these kids explain podcasting–I’m thinking about embedding this video into the ‘What is Podcasting?’ section of my Frequently Asked Questions page.

Podcasting is not really that complicated a concept, yet I can’t tell you how many times I’ve [...]

 

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We’re wrapping up our interview with double bassist Peter Seymour this week on Contrabass Conversations. We began this interview on episode 53, so be sure to check this episode out if you missed it! Peter has performed for the New World Symphony and spent a season playing with the Cleveland Orchestra, and he is [...]

My student Daniel Chmielinski, in addition to being a very talented bassist, runs the car enthusiast site carsleuth.net, and he started a recent vlog episode with a video commercial that he put together for Contrabass Conversations.  Check it out!

 

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Contrabass Conversations regular contributor and classicalmusicnews.tv blogger John Grillo and I recorded a follow-up episode to our recent Opera Excerpt Breakdown episode. In this episode we chat a little more generally about opera bass playing and how it differs from orchestral bass playing.
John has played for numerous opera companies in the past, including the [...]

The February 2008 edition of International Musician, the monthly publication from the American Federation of Musicians, contains a feature on this site and the various satellite projects that I have developed during these past few years of blogging and podcasting, including Arts Addict, Inside the Arts, and Contrabass Conversations.
This feature contains several references to [...]

 

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This week’s Contrabass Conversations episode features an in-depth analysis of the double bass opera excerpts most commonly requested at auditions. Double bassist (and regular Contrabass Conversations guest and co-host) John Grillo discusses each of these excerpts–stylistic considerations, differences in articulation and bow strokes, and suggestions for effectively learning them–and then performs them. We believe [...]

Double bassist and classical music blogger John Grillo put out a recent post on his blog highlighting his upcoming performances of Verdi’s Rigoletto with Opera New Jersey.  John writes:
I look forward to playing Rigoletto again.  This is my second time tackling this mighty work.  It is really an outstanding piece of art with many heavenly [...]