Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog

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A recent article in the Chicago Tribune (Sunday, April 20, 2008 by Howard Reich) on the dramatic increase in music school funding caught my eye over the weekend. Several prominent music schools have new facilities either recently completed or in the planning stages, and the figures are pretty significant:

$22 million - Oberlin [...]

Northwestern University double bass professor Peter Lloyd recently forwarded the following information to me.  If you’re in northern or central Illinois (or if you don’t mind driving a bit), then check out this event with one of the finest bass players out there.  We’ll also have this information listed on our events page.
Hello fellow [...]

 

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We’re chatting with Volkan Orhon, David Murray, Anthony Stoops, and Paul Sharpe on this week’s episode of Contrabass Conversations. Anthony Stoops was featured recently as an interview guest on the podcast, and we also featured Volkan playing one of Chris Threlkeld-Wiegand’s basses on our interview with this fine luthier.
In this interview, we chat [...]

 

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Welcome to Exploring Chamber Music with Brad Opland and the Chicago Chamber Musicians. This Contrabass Conversations special series highlights chamber music that includes the double bass. Learn more about the Chicago Chamber Musicians by visiting www.chicagochambermusic.org.
We’d like to extend special thanks to both Brad Opland and the Chicago Chamber Musicians for making this series possible. [...]

I had a chance this past Saturday (March 1, 2008) to watch a master class hosted by Northwestern University double bass professor Peter Lloyd (fourth from right) featuring longtime Chicago Symphony Principal Bass Joe Guastafeste (pictured here in the center of the group).

Joe has served as Principal Bass of the Chicago Symphony since 1961, serving [...]

 

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We’re chatting with double bassist Anthony Stoops today on Contrabass Conversations. Anthony is the Artist/Teacher of Bass and String Area Chair at the University of Oklahoma School of Music. He also won first prize in the International Society of Bassists international solo competition and is the past recipient of a Karr Foundation double [...]

In late 2007, I wrote a lighthearted (or was it?) dig at Northwestern University and the sorry state of their music facilities:

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Though I doubt that there’s a connection here, I like to think that I did my part in getting the word out about this state of affairs and, if nothing [...]

We just wrapped up a very fun program with the Chicago Philharmonic last night at Northwestern University’s Pick-Staiger Concert Hall.  No matter how many times I perform orchestral warhorses like the Beethoven Fifth Symphony and Strauss’ tone poem Don Juan, I still get a thrill out of playing with a great bass section in a [...]

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 obvious [...]

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 [...]