Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog

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What, exactly, is a “regional” orchestra? For the purposes of this article, regional orchestras will be defined as organizations that employ professional musicians but do not offer a salary and other benefits of full-time employment. The organizational structure is virtually identical to the full-time symphony orchestra and is quite different from the [...]

Most bassists who don’t hold the principal chair in a major symphony orchestra can count on one had the times that they get to play a solo in orchestra. Double bass is an instrument that does not usually fall into the solo spotlight during your typical orchestra concert, and any occasion to play [...]

Lyric Opera of Chicago and Grant Park Symphony double bassist Andy Anderson has just been appointed as a member of the bass faculty of the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University in Chicago, Illinois. This is really exciting news both for Andy and for the bass community at large.
Here’s why:

Andy is [...]

This is the fourth installment of my Road Warrior without an Expense Account series. The intent of this installment is to highlight the increased competition for the progressively decreasing full-time orchestral positions. The statistics I present here are only theoretical and may certainly differ from the exact number or audition openings and candidates, but [...]

 

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This is a special Recital Showcase edition of Contrabass Conversations featuring the music of John Grillo. John was interviewed on Contrabass Conversations episode 6. This episode is a live performance of John’s complete recital, which was performed in Pittsburgh, PA in 2006.
You can also visit John’s Recital Showcase page or subscribe to the [...]

Here is episode 7 of Contrabass Conversations! In this episode we continue our interview with Andy Anderson from the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Grant Park Symphony. You can subscribe to Contrabass Conversations in iTunes by clicking the following button:

Click to listen (right-click to download)or click player below:

Contrabass Conversations Episode 7 [...]

OK–the Bears lost the Superbowl, but this is still a video worth checking out. This is ‘Bear Down, Chicago Bears’ as performed by the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Bryan Griffin:

There is another famous individual with the exact same name (only spelled Brian instead of Bryan) that you all may be familiar with:

This week’s Contrabass Conversations episode features an interview and musical performances from double bassist John Grillo. John has got some great insight into the world of the bass, and this interview was both a lot of fun to do and very informative and interesting.
Click to listen (right-click to download)or click player below:

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Here is a video of three double bassists (Vojtech, Gunars, & Marek) playing an arrangement of Monti’s ‘Czardas’ for double bass trio. This arrangement was done by the great Czech bassist, composer, arranger, and teacher Miloslav Gajdos. I saw Miloslav perform in the fall of 2005 at Northeastern Illinois University here in Chicago, and [...]

 

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I had the great pleasure recently of doing an interview with Lyric Opera of Chicago and Grant Park Symphony Orchestra bassist Andrew Anderson. Andy gave a great interview on a variety of subjects.
In this first part of the interview we discuss Andy’s early years in music, the schools he attended, the type of gigs [...]