Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog

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A recent article in the Chicago Tribune (May 28, 2008) reignited some long-standing concerns that I’ve had for a longtime about the massive amount of educational debt many musicians accrue during their years of training. This trend is affecting all college students (not only musicians), but since our earnings tend to be rather meager [...]

The cycle repeats itself, the faces on the gigs and the music on the stand changing in a never ending cycle of concert halls, Styrofoam cups of coffee in underground orchestra lounges, hauling basses, stools, and stands out of parking garages.

Kennedy Expressway - 7 a.m. - jammed up on the freeway, riding the brake [...]

 

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We’re changing up the podcast format for today’s show and featuring a group of present and former members of the Midwest Young Artists program located on the North Shore of Lake Michigan in metro Chicago. As an educator, I find it very interesting to hear the perspective of younger bassists–what they enjoy about performing, if [...]

This is a guest post from early music specialist and Ars Antigua director Jerry Fuller.
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I’m really looking forward to this coming week. I will be performing concerts with Chicago’s Baroque Band that will use period instruments on June 4, 5 and 11. During the same week I will be playing with an orchestra using modern [...]

I had the opportunity to addend a master class featuring Tim Cobb this past Wednesday (5/28/08), which washosted by Northwestern University’s Peter Lloyd. In addition to serving as principal double bassist with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, Tim serves as principal double bassist for the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center. Prior to [...]

I’m skating on thin ice with this post! The classical music world is surprisingly small, after all, and anydisparaging talk about conductors, even in the most anonymous terms, is likely to trickle back to the source. For my sake (I like to get hired back for gigs I play!), please keep the following points in [...]

We’ll be releasing a feature with bassist, composer, and conductor Peter Askim tomorrow on Contrabass Conversations, so stay tuned to this for some delightful music and commentary, but in the meantime, check out a few of the fun morsels we’ve uncovered this week:
Here’s a great LOL cat from blogging maven Robert Scoble. These little fur [...]

As I spend more of my time focusing on local activities (playing, teaching, etc.) and less on driving all over the country, I’ve gotten a chance to really take in this remarkable city that I live in. What a fascinating and multifaceted place metro Chicago is! I’m currently sitting on the Midway Pleasance, gazing up [...]

Here are a few cool items going on around the classical music blogosphere. Stay tuned later this week for some new articles and interesting items from yours truly. We’ve got all kinds of interesting projects percolating in the background…
Because Shut Up, That’s Why!
Drew McManus and I recently did a series of podcast episodes with Lyric [...]

One of the cool things about doing a weekly interview podcast is watching this body of work grow over the weeks, months, and years. After 1 1/2 years of doing Contrabass Conversations, we’ve got quite a body of content (approaching 100 interview shows, plus numerous video lessons, all-music shows, and special feature episodes), and this [...]