Contrabass Conversations

Today’s episode is a live performance of Jon Deak’s quirky quintet Lucy and the Count: Love Dreams from Transylvania.  Written in 1981, this is a theater piece divided into three scenes featuring the…

Today’s show features Brandon McLean, who just won the associate principal bass position for the Pittsburgh Symphony.  Brandon has most recently served as principal bass of the Colorado Symphony, and…

It is my pleasure to present this interview with Gabe Katz.  Gabe and I have had so many commonalities in our career trajectory, and we have both ended up finding a really satisfying musical niche in…

Today we’re chatting with Gjorgji Cincievski, who is the principal bass of the Malta Philharmonic and has been putting out some very cool arrangements for Hoffmeister, including an arrangement of Bac…

Today we feature double bass luthier Arnold Schnitzer.  Arnold has had an interesting career path, from gigging around the East Coast as a youth to entering the corporate world and finally finding hi…

Today’s episode features double bassist Jerry Fuller.  I’ve known Jerry for well over a decade at this point and have found him to be such an interesting person.  Jerry is best known in the music wor…

Today’s podcast features an interview with Todd Coolman, who has just released his latest album Collectibles.  Todd is actually playing a CD release event tonight at Smoke Jazz Club in New York City …

Today's episode features Houston Symphony principal bassist Robin Kesselman.  Robin studied with David Allen Moore and Paul Ellison at the Coburn School of Music and the University of Southern Cal…

Leon Bosch is a remarkable figure in the world of the double bass.  From his early years growing up in South Africa to his long tenure with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and his proliferatio…

Today’s episode features an entertaining couple of conversations that I had a few years ago with bassist, author, speaker, and playwright Justin Locke.  These have been some of our all-time most popu…

Today’s episode features Madeleine Crouch, who has served as general manager of the International Society of Bassists for the past 25 years.  Madeleine and I talk about her musical background, the va…

I’m thrilled to bring you this episode featuring Joe Conyers.  Joe is the assistant principal bass for the Philadelphia Orchestra and is the founder of Project 440, a nonprofit organization that brin…

Today's episode features soloist, chamber musician, and recording artist Guy Tuneh.  Guy was on the podcast way back in 2007, and a lot has changed for him in the intervening years.  His previous int…

Today we’re featuring Claus Freudenstein, who is pushing the boundaries of the double bass in some really interesting ways.  Claus is innovative on a number of fronts.  He joined the world of the bas…

Trevor Jones and I have done joint clinics in the past, but this is the first one since restarting the podcast, and I figured that it would make sense to put it out this week since we just released o…

Today's episode features double bassist Trevor Jones. It actually amazes me that this is the first time that Trevor has been on the podcast. Trevor kind of does it all: he studied classical bass with…

Today's podcast featuring a conversation with Peter Tambroni, who was an early guest on the podcast back in 2007 on episode 32.  Pete is the author of An Introduction to Bass Playing, which is now i…

Today we are featuring Adam Ben Ezra, who has exploded onto the double bass scene in recent years with his unique musical voice. Adam combines elements of Arabic music, Latin drumming, American pop, …