About Us

Contrabass Conversations features interviews and performances from top leaders in the world of the double bass. Podcast host Jason Heath dives deep into what makes these world-class artists tick. With 2 million downloads and counting, Contrabass Conversations is the most popular podcast for double bassists. Join the community and experience life on the low end of the spectrum!

With hundreds of interviews spanning over a decade, knowing where to start can be a challenge! You can dig deeper into the archives here to find what resonates with you.

Jason Heath, host

Jason Heath is the host of Contrabass Conversations, a podcast devoted to exploring music and ideas associated with the double bass.

His blog and podcast are highly regarded in the music world and have been featured as top offerings in the world of arts and culture for the past decade. He is the author of Winning the Audition and Road Warrior Without an Expense Account.

Jason serves on the Board of Directors for the International Society of Bassists and is the Double Bass Product Manager for Eastman Strings. He also serves on the advisory board of Be Part of the Music, and he is internationally active as a clinician and consultant. Jason is past president of the Illinois chapter of the American String Teachers Association and past orchestra representative for District VII of the Illinois Music Educators Association.

A highly decorated veteran teacher, Jason is a past faculty member at DePaul University and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. His former students hold positions in the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Baltimore Symphony, and Philharmonie Sudwestfalen. As a high school orchestra director, Jason’s orchestras had many notable performances, including the Midwest Clinic in Chicago and tours in Peru, Spain, and Cuba.

A graduate of Northwestern University, Jason performs with the IRIS Orchestra in Memphis Tennessee and ensembles in the San Francisco Bay Area. He was a member of the Elgin Symphony for 16 seasons and has performed with the San Francisco Symphony, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Grant Park Symphony, and numerous other professional ensembles.

Trevor Jones, publication and promotion

Trevor Jones is the house bassist at the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire, IL. In addition to playing over 30 productions since 2014, he was a regular substitute for the Chicago production of Hamilton from 2017-2019. As an orchestral and electric bassist, Trevor has freelanced throughout the U.S. His alternative rock band Molehill has toured the country while compiling a body of work that has been featured in the Chicago Tribune, among others.

Trevor is the founder of The Scholarship Roadmap, a 1:1 program for student musicians navigating the music admissions process. He was the instructor of double bass and bass guitar at Illinois Wesleyan University from 2012-2020.

Principal teachers include Rob Kassinger, Andrew Kohn, and Duane Botterbusch. While studying at DePaul University, Trevor performed with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.

Trevor also manages projects for other artists including product launches, and marketing funnel design, and implementation.

Trevor is in demand as an educator in the Chicago area and maintains a studio at Midwest Young Artists, the preeminent youth music program in the Midwest. Trevor’s former students are currently studying at Eastman School of Music, Cleveland Institute of Music, and Oberlin Conservatory among others.

Listen to Trevor’s interview on Contrabass Conversations where he discusses life in the pit orchestra and creativity
Listen to Trevor and Jason Heath discuss auditioning for Music Schools. Recorded live at the Chicago Bass Festival
Watch or Listen to Trevor perform with Molehill
Listen to Trevor perform on Kate Quinby’s song “Katrina”
Visit Trevor’s website

Mitch Moehring, audio editing

Mitch Moehring of Mitch Moehring Strings began repairing instruments in 2006 while studying music education and double bass performance at Northwestern State University. In 2011 he began rehairing bows and repairing instruments for local musicians and students. He began his formal training during the summer of 2013 while attending the Violin Institute at the University of New Hampshire, studying bow rehair and repair with Lynn Hanning.

In 2013, he and his family moved to Katy, where he spent a year learning and honing his techniques in string instrument repair. Mitch studied at the Oberlin Conservatory with the VSA summer workshops in 2014 and 2016, working with top double bass makers from around the world.

Mitch has continued to repair instruments and has broadened out to restoring since moving back to East Texas. His first bass, which he completed this past summer is currently for sale. He has recently begun his second bass.

Mitch Moehring Strings works with student, amateur, and professional musicians and would love the opportunity to work with you.

Michael Cooper and Steven Hinchey, interview editors

Michael and Steve do a tremendous job editing these interviews. Tasteful editing is one of the most complicated parts of the podcast production process, and the service that these two provide is greatly appreciated!

Krista Kopper, cataloging and archiving

With hundreds of hours of content spanning over a decade, organizing and cataloging these conversation is a major task! We’re so grateful to have Krista Kopper keeping all of this previously published content organized. It’s the only way that we’re able to put out highlight episodes on specific topics!

Krista is the host of The Backstage Creative, a podcast focusing on the people who work behind the scenes of theater to create the scenes, music, costumes, props, and everything else that goes into live productions.

Thoughts from Listeners

One word : Inspiration.

Hearing different prospectives from a variety of bassists gives me a lot to reflect on with my own life and bass playing.

Every podcast inspires me to practice more!

I became aware of your website and podcast a few weeks ago and I read it almost every day. I listen to one podcast at night as I fall asleep. I like to hear about other players practice routines and the ups and downs they face as bass players. Thank you for your hard work and dedication–it’s very inspiring to a new player like myself.

As a young student (and still consider myself a student), I learned a great deal from Samuel Applebaum’s series, “The Way They Play.” I consider Contrabass Conversations the “Next Generation” of such informative publications and look forward to each Contrabass Conversation podcast, knowing that I will benefit in some way from each of Jason’s guests’ experience and insights. I routinely refer my students and colleagues to CC and consider it an invaluable asset to our community. My congratulations and appreciation for Jason Heath’s dedication and efforts to explore and expand the limitless versatility and potential of our “Noble Instrument.”

The podcast has been extremely helpful! I love hearing about how very successful musicians manage their time and hone their focus. I’m pretty much self taught even though I have a doctorate in music, so the in-depth discussions of specific techniques in using the bow have helped a lot, as have links to videos.

Provides me a bigger perspective of what music means for other people, and how they approach it. It´s a very useful tool for studying too.

The audition winners segment has been a huge aid to my practicing, both long term and short term. It’s great to be able to see what are the common threads that tie together successful orchestral bass players.

“Slow Motion Practicing” from the winning the audition series has helped me really improve my excerpts and the Vanhal Concerto that I am currently working on. Also some interviews really got me thinking in a more professional way and helped me start to think about the future and how to prepare for it.

I just recently subscribed so I’ve been just randomly going through podcasts old and new. I find it really interesting and inspiring listening to so many great people in the contrabass community.
The app is awesome and just the hard work and dedication you (Jason) put in to this thing for us makes me want to practice more. Thanks so much for doing this!

Being connected to so many other bassists/musicians has been a huge inspiration for me to keep asking myself for more.

I have followed your podcasts for a number of years and the information I have received on so many different topics relating to the Double Bass is extraordinary. I am a professional performer in a variety of genres and a teacher. Your interviews have been such a mine of information as you know how to the best questions in order to let your interview subjects expand on subjects in great detail. Living in Australia you give me, many of my Peers and Students incredible access to the international Double Bass dialogue. Many thanks.

There have been several incredible interviews that gave me insight into how great artists came to achieve their success, including Ed Barker and his total devotion to the instrument. Thanks for everything you do Jason!

They help especially for my students. They show that the problems all of us have are not unique and can be overcome. They inspire.

This podcast is awesome! I’ve learned so much and enjoyed listening to every single one so far. I look forward to listen to the entire collection!!!

Your entire organization has been wonderful for the Bass World!

The contrabass podcasts and blogs have been a revelation for me! There is so much information and advice to be found here, and is so easily accessible. An incredible, invaluable resource for bass players of any level, from every musical background. Highly recommended!

Thank you SO much for everything you’ve provided for students of the double bass around the world. Your podcast and blog have been invaluable to me in the last semester as a window into the minds and wisdom of those who have succeeded in the classical bass world before me, and as a pointer to a vast number of resources that have been extremely valuable to me in improving my practicing, mindset and goals. Diana Gannett’s webpage and pedagogy books, Hal Robinson’s technique books, Rob Knopper’s approach to practicing and performance/audition preparation–all of which I discovered due to your blog or podcast–and the innumerable nuggets of wisdom I’ve found in the small percentage of podcasts that I’ve listened to so far are things that have been either on my music stand or in my head since I found them, and I don’t expect that they will for a long, long time. Thanks again for all the work you’ve put into this!

You’ve had your blog for at least decade now? I can’t describe how helpful it was when I was in high school and living in a place with no other bassists (can’t make that up) and I was on my own driving 3 hours for lessons bi-weekly. Your show really helped keep the excitement going when no one else could care.

The podcasts have gave me insight to other musician’s struggles and help motivate me to do more.

It’s been very encouraging to hear people’s stories of their personal journey through the bass and music world. It’s been great to pick up some insight from all these world class players. I feel this is a great resource for the modern bassist. I’ve encouraged students to tune in.

Both Jason’s podcast and blog have been a wonderful help for me as I have been navigating my twenties. Particularly when listening the blog posts and few podcasts that Jason released about his own journey into to the role that he currently has, I gained many insights into what it means to carve out you own path, in music and in life.