University of Illinois

Bass Faculty:

Michael Cameron

Larry Gray

General Statistics

  • US News Ranking: #44 (tie) in National Universities
  • US News Overall Score (out of 100): 63
  • In-State Tuition & Fees 2016-17: $15,698
  • Out-of-State Tuition & Fees 2016-17: $31,320
  • Room & Board 2016-17: $11,308
  • Total Enrollment: 45,842
  • Acceptance Rate (from 2015): 66%
  • Student – Faculty Ratio: 18:1
  • 4 year graduation rate: 71%
  • % of undergrads receiving Financial aid: 43%
  • Average Financial Aid: $14,198

Double Bass Statistics

  • Average number of undergraduate bass students: 9
  • Average number of graduate bass students: 3
  • Studio Class, Orchestral Repertoire Class, Bass Ensembles

What Alumni Are Doing

Marco Kaveh was recently appointed associate principal at Covent Garden Opera in London, and has in the recent past played with the London Symphony and the academy of the Concertgebouw. He’s one of several former students in Europe and North America with orchestra positions. Many DMA and MM grads have university positions, including Catalin Rotaru, Marcos Machado, and Henry Chen, three of the finest soloists working today, in my humble opinion! And the vast majority of our Music Ed. graduates have found positions, most in the Chicago area.

Perspectives from the Bass Faculty

Q: What are some of your favorite experiences teaching at your school?

Michael: I really enjoy working with freshman on honing, and sometimes rebuilding, their technical foundation, as needed. It’s such a critical time in their personal and musical development, I feel honored to be such an important part of it. Graduate students generally come with far more refined technique and professional background, and one of my responsibilities is to stoke their musical curiosity. I also take pride in helping them develop their orchestra skills, and watching them bloom as they rehearse and perform at the Krannert Center, one of the most acoustically perfect halls in the country. And I also perform solo and chamber recitals many times a year, and I hope that my example provides some guidance and inspiration as they prepare their recitals.

We’re one of only a handful of schools to have full time bass professors in both classical and jazz, and in some other departments (musicology, composition, education), we are among the highest ranked in the country. There’s a lot to experience here!

About The Bass Faculty

Michael Cameron

Michael Cameron has a reputation as one of the most promising of the world’s bassists in both traditional and contemporary repertoire…”” wrote the Strad (London). He has premiered dozens of works for bass, including pieces by Ben Johnston, Allan Segall, Violeta Dinescu, Yehuda Yannay, Herbert Brun, Erik Lund, Andrew Simpson, Stephen Taylor and many others.  He has also performed a number of American premiers, among them works by Sofia Gubaidulina, Kaija Saariaho, Gyorgy Kurtag, Luciano Berio, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Gavin Bryars and others. His “Sonata Project” initiative funded a new sonata by Lita Grier, premiered at the 2013 International Society of Bassists conference at the Eastman School of Music, and  “Noir Vignettes” by Stacy Garrop in 2015. He premiered “Lament” for double bass and piano by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich in 2015, and will debut another work by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer in 2017. Cameron has appeared in over 20 recordings, beginning with his debut on Gasparo with Claude Baker’s “”Hommage e Fantasie”” (“”…this one’s a beauty…”” Fanfare).

His 1996 recording on the Zuma label (Progression) includes works by Bach, Hindemith, Johnston, Segall, and Shostakovich.  “”Cameron strikes me as an unusually fine player””, wrote the American Record Guide.  “”All of this material is performed with remarkable polish…The Hindemith is outstanding…””.  The Strad added “”…Cameron performs with panache and flair…all these pieces are dispatched with chameleon-like facility of style and understanding.””  His disc Basso Solo includes unaccompanied works of Bach, Donatoni, Berio, Perle, Morton, and Thelonius Monk. “”A fascinating recital for the serious listener…”” wrote the American Record Guide.  “”Cameron demonstrates a real mastery of the art of pizzicato and a fine control of rhythm and vibrato.” He has also recorded three discs of works by Anthony Braxton and Guillermo Gregorio for the Hat Art label (…fresh, vibrant and adventuresome…4 stars, Downbeat).  A new disc of music by Thomas Fredrickson for Perseus Audio was released in 2012, and a recording of sonatas was released on Albany Records in 2016. Another disc of works by Chicago composers will be released by Cedille in 2017.
Cameron has performed with Ensemble Modern, Albany Symphony, and Pacifica Quartet, all  Grammy winning ensembles, and has served as principal bassist of the Sinfonia da Camera, Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, and Slee Sinfonietta.

He has performed in the Edinburgh Festival, June in Buffalo, Asian Contemporary Music Festival (Seoul), Musikfestwochen (Lucerne), the National Gallery of Art in Washington, and London’s Warehouse. He has given dozens of master classes at major music schools (Cleveland Institute of Music, Oberlin, Manhattan School of Music, Indiana University, DePaul University, Northwestern University, Hartt School of Music, University of Michigan, Royal Conservatory of Music in London) and International Society of Bassists conventions, including headline recitals at the 2011 convention in San Francisco and the 2015 event in Colorado.   His former students include prominent soloists (Catalin Rotaru, Marcos Machado, Henry Chen), several double bass professors at prominent institutions, and members of many symphony orchestras (Concertgebouw, London Symphony Orchestra, Covent Garden, Rochester Philharmonic, Houston Grand Opera, etc.). More than fifty of his arrangements and editions are published by BassScores Editions.

He is an active free-lance writer, with over 400 articles published in the Chicago Tribune, Musical America, Fanfare, American String Teachers, Chicago Classical Review, and Bass World. After double bass studies with Allan Dennis in upstate New York, he attended Indiana University, studying with Murray Grodner, Eugene Levinson, Barry Green, Lucas Drew and Stuart Sankey. He was appointed National Endowment for the Humanities Distinguished Visiting Professor at the State University of New York at Potsdam for the fall of 1996, and is now Professor of Double Bass at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.

Larry Gray

Born on Chicago’s south side, Larry Gray is considered by many to be one of jazz music’s finest double bassists. His impressive versatility and uncommon musical curiosity keep him in demand as both a leader and sideman.

Larry began his musical studies at the age of five when his father brought home an accordion and introduced him to his first teacher. Invigorated by this study, Larry added the guitar to his arsenal and studied piano seriously for many years thereafter. It was not until he was in his twenties that he decided to switch to the double bass. Larry went on to study classical music extensively, eventually adding the cello to his long list of loved instruments. His principal teachers were Joseph Guastafeste, longtime principal bassist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and cellist Karl Fruh, a highly regarded soloist and teacher. Under Mr. Fruh’s guidance, he received bachelors and masters degrees in cello performance from the Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt University.

Throughout his long and varied career, Larry has worked with numerous exceptional artists and jazz legends, including McCoy Tyner, Jack DeJohnette, Danilo Perez, Branford Marsalis, Benny Green, Freddy Cole, Benny Golson, Steve Turre, George Coleman, Lee Konitz, Bobby Hutcherson, Sonny Fortune, Ira Sullivan, Junior Mance, David “Fathead” Newman, Willie Pickens, Ann Hampton Callaway, Charles McPherson, Antonio Hart, Jackie McLean, Sonny Stitt, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Al Cohn, Randy Brecker, Nicholas Payton, Kurt Elling, Eric Alexander, Phil Woods, Jon Faddis, Roscoe Mitchell, Von Freeman, Wilbur Campbell, Eddie Harris, and Les McCann. In addition, he has collaborated with guitarists Kenny Burrell, Joe Pass, and Tal Farlow, as well trumpeters Donald Byrd, Harry “Sweets” Edison, and Tom Harrell, among others.

Larry continues to tour extensively, performing at jazz festivals and clubs around the globe, including the Umbria Jazz Festival, the Havana Jazz Festival, Rio Sao Paulo Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, the Montreal International Jazz Festival, ECM Festival in Bielsko-Biala, Poland, the Poznan Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, the Montreaux Detroit Festival, the Chicago Jazz Festival, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Hollywood Bowl, Village Vanguard, Blue Note (New York and Tokyo), Kennedy Center, and the Ravinia Festival, with such jazz luminaries as Marian McPartland, Clark Terry, Nancy Wilson, Frank Morgan, James Moody, Larry Coryell, Louis Bellson, Barry Harris, Dorothy Donegan, Monty Alexander, Frank Wess, Joe Williams, Doc Severinsen and the Tonight Show Band, Kenny Drew Jr., and most recently, Ramsey Lewis.

As a classical musician, Larry played several seasons with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, including a year as principal bass. He worked on many occasions with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under master conductors Erich Leinsdorf, Rafeal Kubelik, Carlo Maria Guilini, and Sir George Solti. He also was the featured double bassist with Lyric Opera for the world premiere of the opera Amistad.

 

 

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