Photo credit: New York Philharmonic
Isaac Trapkus is a bassist with the New York Philharmonic, rosin maker, and developer of Monkey Wrench DB—a tool that syncs sheet music PDFs with YouTube performances. He’s also the creator of a free urtext-style edition of the Koussevitzky Double Bass Concerto, based on a previously unknown personal score copy he discovered at the Library of Congress.
We cover a wide range of topics: Isaac’s years-long journey developing his handcrafted rosin (Winter), the unique acoustic challenges of the double bass that make rosin so stubbornly hard to get right, and his Library of Congress discovery of Koussevitzky’s clean personal score—complete with hidden measures taped over by the composer himself.
We also dig into AI’s expanding role in Isaac’s tech projects, the ethics of open-source music tools, and the tension between building things because you can versus building things that actually matter. Find Isaac’s Koussevitzky edition on IMSLP, explore Monkey Wrench DB at monkeywrenchdb.org, and check out his past podcast appearance here.
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Gear used to record this podcast
- Zoom H6 studio 8-Track 32-Bit Float Handy Recorder
- Rode Podmic
- Sony Alpha 7 IV Full-frame Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens Camera
- Sony FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM Lens
- Sony FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM Lens
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Theme music by Eric Hochberg