Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog

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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 [...]

 

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We’re wrapping up our chat with Barrie Kolstein this week on the Contrabass Conversations show. We began this interview on episode 70 of the program, and in it we discussed Barrie’s father Samuel Kolstein and how he got into the bow making business, the progression into the bass making business, and the development [...]

I’m an indie content producer all the way. Though I do this stuff every day (and have been doing so for years), I have no formal training in writing, audio engineering, web design, or network technology. I’m a dude with a couple of music degrees, extra time on my hands after quitting a [...]

We released a Contrabass Conversations episode this past weekend featuring the Bad Boyz of Bass (Anthony Stoops, Volkan Orhon, Paul Sharpe, and David Murray).  Check out episode 71 of the podcast to hear these guys chat about the group and perform some selections, and be sure to subscribe to Contrabass Conversations (click here for iTunes [...]

We’re continuing our feature on double bassist Volkan Orhon today with this performance from KSUI’s Know the Score program. Volkan performs Francois Rabbath’s composition Poucha Dass on this video. Francois is another former Contrabass Conversations guest. Check out his interviews and performances at contrabassconversations.com along with Volkan!

Many bassists here in the States are busy preparing for the upcoming audition with the Pittsburgh Symphony. If you’re interested in this position, application details and a repertoire list are available at the bottom of this post (click the ‘read the rest of this entry’ link if you don’t see it).
We had the opportunity [...]

 

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Ira Gold, a member of the National Symphony bass section and a previous guest on the Contrabass Conversations podcast, is now on faculty at the Catholic University of America’s Benjamin T. Rome School of Music in Washington, D.C.
The school is accepting late applicants for Fall of ‘08. If interested, students can either view information [...]

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 [...]

Classicalmusicnews.tv blogger and Contrabass Conversations co-host John Grillo continues his series ‘The Musical Universe’ with this second installment on his blog:
First came time! This is the second installment in my blog series “The Musical Universe.”  The first installment covered pitches emanating from black holes. This second installment will discuss the rhythm of our own Sun.  [...]

Here’s another video from Bad Boyz of Bass member and Contrabass Conversations guest Volkan Orhon. Volkan includes the following information about this video:
This is a live performance of Richard Strauss’ Morgen for soprano, doublebass and piano. It was performed at the Benefit Concert for the September 11th Terrorist Attack Victims. Sara Metcalfe, soprano [...]