Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog

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We hope you all enjoyed our first episode of the all-music show Eclectic Bass, our latest offering from the Contrabass Conversations podcast network. If you missed it, you can find the first episode here, and stay tuned for more episodes from this series in the very near future.
Along with Exploring Chamber Music, our [...]

The Chicago Symphony doesn’t pre-screen audition candidates for their  orchestra, allowing anyone who sends a resume and deposit check to get an audition time.  While this is an extremely egalitarian approach to the audition process (anyone who wants a shot gets a shot at auditioning for the Chicago Symphony), it also makes for some [...]

We hope that you all enjoyed the second half of our interview with double bass luthier Barrie Kolstein this past weekend. If you missed it, you can check it out on Barrie’s Contrabass Conversations page. You can download the episode, play it while you’re surfing online (click ‘play in popup’ and keep [...]

Lyric Opera of Chicago bassist, former Contrabass Conversations guest, and faculty member at Northeastern Illinois University and the Chicago College of Performing Arts Greg Sarchet is helping to collect used strings for double bass master teacher and performer Miloslav Gajdos’ bass studio (see his videos on Contrabass Conversations here).
Greg writes:
Dear All-
Czech double bassist and composer [...]

Chicago Symphony bassist and active blogger Michael Hovnanian just put out a post recounting a highly wacky gig that he played with other members of his orchestra.  This gig (on Good Friday) happened to land on the day of a freak snow storm here in Chicago, with the metro area receiving 6-12 inches of snow [...]

Reading Michael Hovanian’s recent blog story Bad Friday made me recall (for whatever reason) a tale that a Chicago Symphony bassist told me many years ago….
Sir Georg Solti, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s longtime music director, had a reputation for being fairly difficult to understand in rehearsal.  New orchestra musicians would often gaze quizzically at him [...]

I do a lot of driving, and I’ve certainly seen more than my fair share of nasty intersections, but I’ve never witnessed anything like the horrific messes seen below! This post is from Dark Roasted Blend, one of my long-time favorite blogs. I’ve actually contributed a post on Automated Musical Instruments to this [...]

This story is also available in a video version.
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Ahhhh! Ahhhh!
My focus shattered, I looked up from my music and all around me. Where was that yelling coming from? We were just starting the second half of an orchestral pops concert in a vast arena-like theater out by the airport in metro Chicago, [...]

A colleague of mine passed along this entertaining (and true!) tale from a concert in a local per-service gig orchestra.  I know a lot of musicians who perform in this orchestra (which I’ll refrain from naming here), which makes it even funnier to me.
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A regional orchestra in metro Chicago was recently rehearsing a piece with [...]

The nasty cold and never ending snowstorms seem to have finally ebbed for this season (knock on wood!). What a winter! I seem to have become fixated on the bad weather this season, and for good reason!