I hope your fall is going well! After spending time in Albuquerque last week (with a great visit to Robertson and Sons), I’m back home in San Francisco.
Next week, I’ll be heading down to Tijuana at the end of next week for Andrés Martin’s bass festival. Andrés is doing incredible things for the bass world as a composer and educator, and I’m really looking forward to this event!
Indiana University will host ISB 2019
The 2019 International Society of Bassists Convention will take place June 3rd through 8th at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana.
Folks have been anticipating this announcement for the past few months, and it will be great to reunite as a bass community in Indiana.
Indiana University professor Kurt Muroki will be the site host. Check out my wide-ranging conversation with Kurt from 2015 below:
World Premiere of Anna’s Promise Suite for Bass and Piano by Andres Martin
Barry, Jeff Bradetich, and I chatted about this piece and the unique vision behind it back in the fall of 2015–it’s a beautiful and moving work!
Me, myself and the upright bass | Adam Ben Ezra | TEDxVicenza
Past podcast guest Adam Ben Ezra takes the stage at TEDxVincenza.
Seeing the Music
Alan Glick started a great thread in our Contrabass Conversations Community Facebook Group about enlarging parts for orchestral playing. Here’s the thread–share your thoughts!
Mark Deutsch Playing the Bazantar
Are you familiar with the Bazantar? I wasn’t until bassist Kristin Zoernig passed along this video of Mark Deutsch (the inventor of the instrument) playing it.
The Bazantar is a five-string acoustic bass, fitted with an additional twenty-nine sympathetic strings and four drone strings.
Cool, huh?
Jeff Bradetich 60th Birthday Concert at Carnegie Hall
Jeff Bradetich will return to Carnegie Hall–35 years after his debut there–for a 60th Birthday Concert on Friday, November 17, 2017 8pm. Details here and below.
P. Kellach Waddle Premieres
P. Kellach Waddle had three pieces premiered at Somerset Bass Weekend In Somerset, England on Friday October the 20th.
The three pieces receiving their first hearings are :
- The Sad Thursday That Lady A Stopped The Vampire’s Walks: Elegy-Lament for solo bass — Op. 586 which will be premiered by Dritan Gani
- The Secrets Burning In the Sconces At Alhambra: Impression for solo bass — Op. 565 which will be premiered by Simon Garcia
- The Lament Over The Triumph Over The Demonness Lady A And The Fervent Prayers That She Will Never Perish From The Plague : Chorale-Lament for Double Bass Trio Op. 590 which will be premiered by Dritan Gani, Simon Garcia, and David Heyes
More info available here.
P.Kellach Waddle will sadly not be traveling to England for these premieres— that very day he will be playing Fantasia/Fantasia 2000 with live orchestra in his regular position with The Austin Symphony– PKW indeed is celebrating his 25th season as a member of The Austin Symphony this season!
I interviewed P. Kellach back in the day for the podcast while hanging out at the 2009 International Society of Bassists Convention.
News Bites
- help out Bay Area bassist Jeff Chambers with his cancer battle via GoFundMe (thanks to Pat Klobas for the link)
- great photo of former podcast guests Michael Valerio and Rob Kassinger
- A letter from Maestro Paavo Järvi
- conversations this week on the podcast from Marlene Rosenberg, John Grillo, and Scott Lang
- the Composition Competition for BassEurope 2018 in Lucca is underway
- Forget the Cubs. The Chicago Symphony can’t lose
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