Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog

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Episode 2 for Contrabass Conversations is now out! Visit Contrabass Conversations to subscribe to this podcast, or listen live here:
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CC #2 Show Notes
Contrabass Conversations Episode 2 - Audition news and more.release date: 1/8/07show length: 27:43

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website: http://contrabassconversations.come-mail: contrabassconversations@gmail.com24 hour voicemail: 206-666-6509
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In this second installment of my series on professional freelance life as a musician, I would like to offer some commentary on trends that I see in the world of professional classical music performance. This installment of the series is geared toward orchestral performance. Other musicians, educators, and industry professionals may find [...]

Drew McManus wrote a recent post about a pair of articles he edited for Jonathan Boen, Principal Horn for the Lyric Opera of Chicago. The concerto was commissioned from Jan Bach, and the articles (available on Polyphonic.org) chronicle Jonathan’s experiences with the entire commissioning, rehearsing, performing, and recording process. It is an interesting [...]

This article was published in the March/April 2007 edition of the Adjunct Advocate. Visit the article on their website here.
This series is currently being turned into a book–coming soon!
This is the first in the series of detailed articles covering the hidden costs associated with freelance work. In this installment I discuss the realities [...]

The Washington Post had an article last year on double bass soloist and Northwestern University instructor DaXun Zhang. I just recently discovered it. Here is an excerpt:

The double bass is one of the few remaining instruments that have never produced a bankable star in classical music. [...]

I recently found this video of double bassist Jeff Bradetich playing the Gigue from Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 on YouTube:

Here is a quote from Jeff’s bio:
Proclaimed by the New York Times as “the master of his instrument,” Jeff Bradetich is regarded as one of the leading performers and teachers of [...]

This is a post continuing the discussion of various double bass fingering methods. You can read the complete conversation here. Feel free to add your comments to any of these posts. If you have more extended thoughts or additional methods that you would like me to include as a separate post feel [...]

There was a great article in this Sunday’s Chicago Tribune Magazine about the rising cost of college tuition. The article profiles Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, a school ranked in the third tier of national colleges by U.S. News and World Report. Tuition costs have doubled at this school between 2000 and [...]

My double bass colleague John Tuck recently sent some comments regarding my Rabbath versus Simandl post. He agreed to let me share them here. John is Assistant Principal Bass for the Northwest Indiana Symphony. He also plays for the Lake Forest Symphony and the Des Moines Metro Opera Orchestra, and he has [...]

John C. Dvorak recently posted this story about a class action lawsuit Florida college students have initiated against school book publishers for overcharging:
In a first-of-its-kind lawsuit that could affect thousands ofcollege students who think they are overcharged for textbooks, twoDaytona Beach Community College students have sued the nation’s largestcollegiate-bookstore chain and their school.

The class-action suit, [...]