Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog

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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 [...]

I’ve written several times on this blog about both why I teach music and reasons why one might choose music teaching as a career.  I’ve also wrestled with misconceptions across the performer/educator divide, finding myself alternately surprised, shocked, and intrigued about the assumptions each camp has about the other.
One woefully neglected and quite [...]

A Week in the Life is a brief series chronicling a quirky but nevertheless quite typical week in the life of a mid-tier freelance musician.  Though the sort of wacky events I’ve described thus far undoubtedly happen in orchestras of all flavors, from the Berlin Philharmonic to the community orchestra down the block from me, [...]

Lyric Opera of Chicago bassist (and Contrabass Conversations guest) Greg Sarchet sent me a link to what is pretty much the greatest bass video of all time. I’m not sure whether to put an ‘explicit’ warning on this one–let’s just say that you may want to skip this one if you have delicate sensibilities.
For [...]

While surfing around online doing some promotional activities for the Contrabass Conversations podcast, I happened to stumble upon the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s MySpace page. Although finding an arts organization on MySpace is not exactly a rare occurrence, I was struck by just how well-conceived and organized the content, layout, and structure was [...]

This photo features the Lyric Opera of Chicago bass section onstage beneath the imposing countdown clock from John Adams’ opera Doctor Atomic.

(pictured left to right: Greg Sarchet, Aventino Calvetti, Mike Geller, Andy Anderson, Brian Ferguson, and Collins Trier)
This opera features a particularly challenging extended double bass solo.  You can check it out below (click the [...]

…on the birth of Eli, their second son!  Andy plays bass for the Lyric Opera of Chicago, teaches at Roosevelt University, and is a regular contributor to the Contrabass Conversations podcast.  He also happens to be a dear friend, and I wish him and his wife Rose all the best.
You can check out photos of [...]

Lyric Opera of Chicago and Northeastern Illinois bass teacher Greg Sarchet sent me a link to this video recently.  I remember seeing an earlier incarnation of this a while ago, and this is an updated version with new statistics.  I really like this video–it makes you think, and it’s the sort of thing that I [...]

Library of Congress Blog » My Friend Flickr: A Match Made in Photo Heaven (Library of Congress)
Library of Congress now offering non-copyrighted pictures through….Flickr! Cool!
(tags: access archive archives blogging blogs books digital flickr folksonomy free history library photo photography Photos public school social tag tagging tags Web Web2.0)

Butts In The Seats: Arts Leaders Ain’t [...]

Jerry Fuller directs the Chicago-area period instrument ensemble Ars Antigua in Chicago’s Quigley Chapel. Photos by Robert Osterlund
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The following is a guest post from Double Bass Blog contributor Phillip W. Serna. Check out Phillip’s recitals and interviews on his Contrabass Conversations page, and visit him online at http://www.phillipwserna.com/. Enjoy!
 
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Contrabass Conversations and the Double Bass Blog [...]