Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog

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I’m off to scenic Door County, Wisconsin tomorrow for my very enjoyable annual summer music festival. I put out a video about this festival earlier this week. It’s fun to think back on my previous seasons spent up in Wisconsin. In 2005, this blog wasn’t even a twinkle in my eye.

A little blog history
In [...]

 

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We’re concluding our chat with double bassist Anthony Stoops today on Contrabass Conversations, which we began on episode 67 of the podcast. Anthony is the Artist/Teacher of Bass and String Area Chair at theUniversity of Oklahoma School of Music. He also won first prize in the International Society of Bassists international solo competition and [...]

Today is the two-year anniversary of my recital on the Karr-Koussevitzy bass. I had a real whirlwind of a week when doing that recital, putting on a student recital the previous day and getting packed up to head off to a chamber music festival in Door County, Wisconsin the following day.

It’s amazing to think about [...]

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 compared [...]

 

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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 [...]

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 [...]

Check out part 1 and part 2 of this series as well!
A significant chunk of my time these days is spent preparing, recording, editing, distributing, and promoting my podcast Contrabass Conversations, and even though I have always known that I’d have an easier time doing these tasks on a Mac, I’m a creature of habit, [...]

 

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We’re featuring double bassist, composer, and conductor Peter Askim on today’s episode of Contrabass Conversations. A former member of the Honolulu Symphony and an internationally acclaimed composer, Peter currently serves as music director and composer-in-residence for the Idyllwild Arts Academy. His Eight Solitudes for Double Bass won the 2002 International Society of Bassists Composition Competition. [...]

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 [...]

 

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Here’s episode 5 of Story Time with Contrabass Conversations, based upon a tale about an audition I did for the now-defunct San Jose Symphony.