Contrabass Conversations double bass life

Today's conversation with Atlanta Symphony bassist Karl Fenner is a deep-dive into auditioning, progress, long-term planning, and persevering through adversity.  There's a ton of advice that you can use to help with your preparation for any upcoming performance, audition, or high-stakes event!

Catalin Rotaru has just released a new album titled The Lord of The Basses.  This album features Catalin performing on Bottesini's famous 300-year-old Testore bass.  Catalin has also released another project this fall titled Sonic Bridges Vol. 2.

I had a great time chatting with Susan Wulff for the podcast! Susan is Associate Principal Bass of the San Diego Symphony and is a longtime friend of mine.  She is an active Contemporary and Hip Hop dancer and loves to build things as well. 

Jack Unzicker and Jason Heath chat about all kinds of topics in today's episode.  This was recorded live at East Side Denton in Denton, Texas in September, 2017.

Hans Sturm and Jackie Allen have recently released Rose Fingered Dawn, an album of original compositions written by Hans.  Today's episode is a conversation with Hans about this new album along with excerpts of several selections.

It was a pleasure to sit down with bassist, composer, and University of California San Diego professor Mark Dresser for this wide-ranging conversation about bi-tones, fingerboard amplification, telematic music performance, and much more!

Today, we take a look at the remarkable impact that Paul Ellison has had on the double bass world as a teacher. This episode includes our original interview with Paul from 2016 as well as thoughts on Paul as a teacher from five former students.

As a child Matthew McDonald was actually interested in playing only jazz and rock music. His parents gave him an electric bass for Christmas – but only under the condition that he would also learn to play the double bass. Matthew quickly fell in love with the big instrument’s dark, mellow sound.

Ron Carter is among the most original, prolific, and influential bassists in jazz. With more than 2,000 albums to his credit, he has recorded with many of music's greats: Tommy Flanagan, Gil Evans, Lena Horne, Bill Evans, B.B. King, the Kronos Quartet, Dexter Gordon, Wes Montgomery, and Bobby Timmons. In the early 1960s he performed throughout the United States in concert halls and nightclubs with Jaki Byard and Eric Dolphy.

This series is drawn from interviews conducted with dozens of bassists from orchestras like the Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, National Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, and Houston Symphony, plus some of the most influential pedagogues in the field.

Bertram Turetzky has been a distinguished clinician and pedagogue for over three decades, giving master classes, seminars, and workshops nationally and internationally. His knowledge of repertoire, performance style, and his unique approach to technical, psychological, and physical problems has made him a highly sought-after teacher. His master classes have been referred to as "life-altering."

Can a piece of music be cursed? After hearing this tale of repeatedly bizarre circumstances surrounding James VanDemark's repeated Dittersdorf Concerto performances, you'll be asking that same question! A big thank you to James for his idea for this episode, and be sure to check out James' past podcast appearance for more about his career as a double bass performer and teacher.

Native of Buenos Aires, Argentina, bassist, arranger, and composer Andrés Martín has performed with orchestras and chamber ensembles in Argentina, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico, England, Germany and United States. Since his arrival in Tijuana (Mexico), Andrés has been immersed in teaching as well as performing as a soloist and chamber musician. He is a member of the “Orquesta de Baja California” and “Cuatro para Tango”, a chamber ensemble with whom he has released four recordings.

Gene Perla was raised in New Jersey where he studied classical piano and trombone. After attending Berklee School of Music he moved to New York and began his musical career as a jazz bassist. He has performed and/or recorded with Chick Corea, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Herman, Elvin Jones, Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, Chuck Mangione, Joni Mitchell, Buddy Rich, Sonny Rollins, Nina Simone, Frank Sinatra, Stone Alliance, Sarah Vaughan, Nancy Wilson, and others.

The English Double Bass examines the great English double bass makers of the 18th and 19th Century, illustrating in fine detail the incredible work they produced. It also explores the fascinating story of how the double bass came to England, its development guided by the great Venetian virtuoso Domenico Dragonetti, and the rise and fall of the English double bass makers.