Ian Hallas performs the Bottesini Concerto mvt 2

Ian Hallas, principal bassist for the Midwest Young Artists Symphony Orchestra (and my student for the past six years) is seen here performing the second movement of the Bottesini Concerto in B minor with his high school orchestra in Northbrook, Illinois. This was...

Bass by Chris Threlkeld-Wiegand – video

I recently got a chance to play around with one of luthier Chris Threlkeld-Wiegand’s double basses. Chris used to work at Robertson and Sons in Albuquerque, New Mexico, building extensions with capos (like the ones you see on the Contrabass Conversations logo)....

Vito Liuzzi plays Nino Rota and Bottesini

I’ve blogged before about Vito Liuzzi’s performance of the Divertimento Concertante by Nino Rota, posting video of the first two sections in earlier blog posts (that annoying 10 minute limit on YouTube videos really gets in the way with classical...

Insightful Rabbath technique comment from Benjy

Bass blog contributor Benjy wrote a wonderful comment after viewing the Hans Sturm videos about the Rabbath technique that we’ve been posting here. Since comment can quickly disappear under the radar here (due to the daily avalanche of new content), I thought...