I hope you’ve had a good week! I’m packing my bags and heading to Albuquerque, New Mexico tomorrow. My wife is from there, and we’re taking a week to visit family and friends.
I can’t resist doing a little geeking out bass-wise while I’m there, so I’ll be paying a visit to Robertson & Sons to check out some basses and bows. Hopefully I’ll run into Trevor Davis while I’m there!
Baltimore Symphony Bass Quartet on Italian Basses
It was a pleasure to hear Eric Stahl, Tim Dilenschneider, Drew Banzhaf and Jonathan Jensen play a bass quartet rendition of “I’m a-Doun For Lack o’ Johnnie” on their vintage Italian basses.
Drew is a former student of mine and is doing a one-year position with the Baltimore Symphony, and Tim and I talked audition tips and techniques for the podcast earlier this year.
Check out more audition strategies at contrabassconversations.com/auditioning, and check out my very fun conversation with Tim below.
New Video from Mikyung Soung
Bradetich Competition finalist Mikyung Soung just released a new video on Facebook, and she sounds fabulous as always. Several of Mikyung’s videos have gotten nearly 1,000,000 views, and there’s a good reason why!
By the way, she’s not playing “left-handed.” That’s the default Facebook Live setting for smartphones when you do selfie mode.
Check out Mikyung performing the Bottesini Concerto at the Bradetich Competition–what a sound!
Szymon Marciniak appointed principal bassist for Dortmunder Philharmoniker
Congratulations to Szymon Marciniak for his new position with the Dortmunder Philharmoniker! Szymon is a former podcast guest and is one heck of a player.
I have so many favorite videos of Szymon… it’s hard to pick just one to share. Check out his YouTube Channel for a ton of great bass played, and hold on to your hat as you hear him play The Ultimate Workout by Chiel Meijering.
If you haven’t checked out my conversation with Szymon, you’re in for a treat. Szymon is incredibly insightful and has so much to share.
More Stories of the Week
- Lauren Pierce has a new course available called Concepts of Solo Playing, and it’s on sale this week with a 20% discount!
- Beautiful 18th century bass for sale in Los Angeles – thanks to Brandino for the info!
- Thank you to Patricia Weitzel for her insightful and entertaining conversation on the podcast this week!
- I’m a big fan of what Chris Fitzgerald is doing on YouTube–chatting with him for the podcast was a real highlight for me
- Kurt Morrow shared all kinds of wonderful memories of his time with Milt Hinton – thanks for the great idea, Kurt!
- Hilarious Tidal FAIL regarding jazz bass from Robert Sabin – this features former podcast guest Ron Carter
- 7th Annual Bass Day coming to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in October – join the wonderful Hans Sturm and others for this event
- Classical Music Is Dying Because We Aren’t Dumbing It Down Enough – from Drew McManus
- Noa Laniakea jamming with Paul Kowert
- Rob Knopper is hiring for his excellent auditionhacker/percussionhacker empire
- “We always are pleasantly surprised at what we have in us.”: Esperanza Spalding talks about making an album in 77 hours
- To Plug Its Massive Teacher Shortage, San Francisco Is Doing Everything but the Obvious
- Reclaiming My Identity As a Musician – great post from recent podcast guest Jennifer Rosenfeld (she just interviewed me for her podcast!)
Have a great weekend, and remember to rosin your bow!
Bass News Right To Your Inbox!
Subscribe to get our weekly newsletter covering the double bass world.