This “best of” episode features Berlin Philharmonic principal bassist Matthew McDonald. Enjoy, and check out the original episode from 2016 here.
About Matthew McDonald
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.
In 1996 he began his studies with Max McBride at the Canberra School of Music, later continuing with Kees Boersma in Sydney, where he completed his bachelor’s (BMus) degree in 2000. From 2000 to 2001 he was a scholar of the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Orchestra Academy, and then was immediately engaged as deputy principal bass of the Danish National Orchestra.
He relinquished that position in order to prepare for his concert exam with Esko Laine at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” in Berlin. Engagements followed as principal bass with the Ensemble Modern (2003-06) and with Berlin’s Rundfunk Sinfonie Orchester and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester before he came to the Berliner Philharmoniker.
As a chamber player, Matthew McDonald is a regular visitor to the Open Chamber Music seminar at Prussia Cove in Cornwall. He devotes his free time to his family, first and foremost, and also enjoys reading and going to the cinema.
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Upton’s Bostonian was conceived at the 2009 International Society of Double Bassists convention at State College, Pennsylvania, while world-renowned jazz bassist and Professor of Jazz Studies at the University of North Texas, Lynn Seaton and Upton Bass String Instrument Co. President and Founder, Gary Upton Birkhamshaw were playing and discussing the various instruments Upton Bass had created for the convention. They started with a blank sheet of paper, and together began jotting down Lynn’s preferences and suggestion with each model. The result was a rough outline of what would become the UB Bostonian Concert Double Bass.