Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog

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For years I worked as a coach and lesson teacher in the public schools of suburban Chicago. I ran sectionals, did some chamber music coaching, and taught a gaggle of kids during and after the school day. Although I was pretty hesitant about doing this work when I started freelancing, worrying that [...]

My contribution to the Take a Friend to Orchestra initiative is now posted, so folks can check out today’s post at Adaptistration (the excellent blog that Drew McManus authors) to read my thoughts on how to introduce classical music to a newbie.
Drew has been featuring a wide array essays from classical music [...]

After the bleak nature of the last several installments of this series, I am pleased to talk about a more positive and constructive piece in the puzzle that makes up the life of a freelance musician.
Most musicians engage in at least some degree of private teaching. The tradition of passing down skills, knowledge, [...]

Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007 was a very exciting day for the Chicago double bass scene as Francois Rabbath made a rare trip to our Lake Michigan metropolis. Chicago Symphony member and DePaul University double bass instructor Rob Kassinger organized a master class with Francois, and at least 50 bass players and enthusiasts attended the [...]

In early 2004 my new Saturn abruptly caught fire as I was driving home from an orchestra rehearsal. I pulled the flaming carriage over, got my instrument out, and ran away just before it exploded. You can check out that part of the story here.
This was, to put it mildly, an unexpected [...]

I often wondered as I entered the classical music freelance world how one could possibly put together an income in this business. Some politically smart auditions I took my last year of graduate school helped me join the Chicago freelance scene fairly smoothly, allowing me to play with the best groups in the area [...]

My former student Tyler Bakken sent me this information about when and where double bassist Jeff Bradetich will be holding his summer master classes. It looks like he’s all over the globe with these activities this year.
From Jeff:
This summer, I will be teaching my master classes at three differentlocations: in Denton, Texas; Seattle, Washington [...]

My friend and IRIS Chamber Orchestra pianist Josh Nemith just started a blog for pianists. So far he has a lot of information about local Cincinnati piano resources as well as a post about the New World Symphony. Josh was the New World Symphony pianist for two seasons, and he currently does a [...]

The 2007 Whitewater Winter Bassfest, an event that I started five years ago at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, just happened a couple of weekends ago. Scott Kreger, the new double bass instructor at UWW and a member of the Milwaukee Symphony, was teaching there, as were double bassists Kate Nettleman and Peter Tambroni.
Evan Burchett, [...]

I have seen the excellent Chicago jazz bassist Kelly Sill in action recently, and I have to say that I am quite impressed. Seeing Kelly reminded me of my student days at Northwestern University. I remember many performances with Kelly and former Northwestern University jazz faculty member Mike Kocour. Mike is a [...]