Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog

 

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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 [...]

This is a post from National Symphony Orchestra bassist Jeff Weisner.  Jeff also teaches bass at The Peabody Institute in Baltimore and co-authors the blog PeabodyDoubleBass.  Click here for all of Jeff’s doublebassblog.org posts.
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On Monday, we had Audition Day for basses here at Peabody. We heard lots of great bass playing, [...]

This is an opportunity not to be missed! Philadelphia Orchestra principal bassist Hal Robinson is joined by Houston Symphony bassist Eric Larson and Time for Three bassist (and Contrabass Conversations guest) Ranaan Meyer for Wabass, a one week free (!) institute for double bass players age 14 and up.

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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 [...]

We’ve just launched our international listing of double bass teachers.  So far, we’re representing….Illinois and Pennsylvania.  Hmm…..maybe there are some bass teachers outside of these states.  If you’d like to be added to this list, just visit our teacher directory and add yourself to the list.  Though the list is small right now, I am [...]

 

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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 [...]

There is certainly no shortage of private music teacher directories.  Companies such as www.privatelessons.com and www.clickforlessons.com will (for a fee) allow you to create a directory listing, which can be a very useful promotional tool.  Still, in the spirit of offering a free suite of services for the double bass performer, student, and educator, we’d [...]

We’ve had several individuals submit additions to our music school audition requirements page, so take a look and see what pieces are being asked from various institutions.  If you have any additions, please leave them at the bottom of the audition requirements page.
As this list expands, I’ll start to analyze this data and put together [...]

Frequent blog and podcast collaborator Andy Anderson gave me the great idea of compiling a list of double bass audition requirements for major universities and conservatories.  I think this is a great idea, and I’ve put up what Andy has compiled thus far:
http://doublebassblog.org/features/audition-requirements
You can get to it in the left sidebar or under the Features [...]