Contrabass Conversations

Contrabass Conversations

double bass podcast

1011: Bobby Scharmann on winning an orchestra audition

Bobby Scharmann is Associate Principal Bass with the Omaha Symphony Orchestra and has been documenting his audition journey and what he has learned through the 24 professional orchestra auditions he took.

We last had Bobby on the podcast in 2020, and it was great to catch up with him and dig into his preparation process and what it was like landing his full-time orchestral position.  Enjoy, and be sure to check out Bobby’s website, Instagram, and YouTube Channel!

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Carnegie Mellon University Double Bass Studio – The School of Music at CMU highly values each and every individual who wants to be a part of an innovative fine arts community immersed in a top research university. 

Every week each student receives private lessons and participates in a solo class with Micah Howard. Peter Guild, another member of the PSO, teaches Orchestral Literature and Repertoire weekly. They encourage students to reach out to the great bassists in their area for lessons and direction. Many of the bassists from all of the city’s ensembles are more than willing to lend a hand. Every year members of the Symphony, the Opera and the Ballet give classes and offer our students individual attention. Click here to visit Micah’s website and to sign up for a free online trial lesson.

992: Sean O’Hara on long-term progress

Sean O’Hara recently won an audition for a double bass section position in the Fort Worth Symphony.  In this episode, we talk about Sean’s journey from the San Francisco Bay area to UCLA to study with Chris Hanulik, his time working with Brian Johnson at Cal State Fullerton, his with studying with Tim Pitts at Rice University, lessons learned after 33 auditions, getting into traditional Irish, music, and much more.  Enjoy!

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Thank you to our sponsor, Dorico! It is my favorite software for music notation and composition. Designed for MacOS, iPad, and Windows, Dorico’s workflow allows you to spend more time making music. Download Dorico 5, their free iPad app, or their free version (forever), Dorico SE 5. 

Get Dorico: https://www.steinberg.net/dorico/

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Check out my Beginner’s Classical Bass course and Intermediate to Advanced Classical Bass course, available exclusively from Discover Double Bass.

988: Kaelan Decman on his audition path and process

Kaelan Decman joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic as Associate Principal Bass in the spring of 2022.  Before his appointment, he was a member of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra bass section.  He graduated from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music.

We talk about his audition journey and much more in this wide-ranging conversation.  Enjoy!

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Connect with us:

Listen to Contrabass Conversations with our free app for iOS, Android, and Kindle.

Check out my Beginner’s Classical Bass course and Intermediate to Advanced Classical Bass course, available exclusively from Discover Double Bass.

955: Christian Hales on auditioning and his path so far

Christian Hales joined the Charleston Symphony in 2022 as Principal Bass.  I got together with him in person here in the San Francisco Bay Area before he departed for this exciting new chapter in his life.  We talk about how he got into music, his initial career goals and how they shifted toward orchestral performance, his audition process and lessons learned along the way, and much more.  Enjoy!

Subscribe to the podcast to get these interviews delivered to you automatically!

Connect with us:

Listen to Contrabass Conversations with our free app for iOS, Android, and Kindle.

Check out my Beginner’s Classical Bass course and Intermediate to Advanced Classical Bass course, available exclusively from Discover Double Bass.

Thank you to our sponsors!

Carnegie Mellon University Double Bass Studio – CMU is dedicated to helping each student achieve their goals as a musician. Every week each student receives private lessons and participates in a solo class with Micah Howard. Peter Guild, another member of the PSO, teaches Orchestral Literature and Repertoire weekly. They encourage students to reach out to the great bassists in their area for lessons and direction. Many of the bassists from all of the city’s ensembles are more than willing to lend a hand. Every year members of the Symphony, the Opera and the Ballet give classes and offer our students individual attention. Click here to visit Micah’s we bsite and to sign up for a free online trial lesson.

816: Noah Reitman on his path to the Vancouver Symphony

Noah Reitman has been assistant principal bass of the Vancouver Symphony since 2015 and is also currently the president of the Vancouver Musicians’ Association.  He also coaches bass and chamber music at Idyllwild Arts in California in the summers.  He is also on the faculty at the VSO School of Music where he teaches bass lessons and coaches chamber music, as well as the Saint James Academy of Music.  He and his wife Maggie are also the founders of Purple Mollusk Music, a label for their varied projects. 

He grew up in Los Angeles and began studying at the Colburn School with David Young at age 12.  He continued his studies at the University of Michigan, where he studied with Diana Gannett, followed by Indiana University, where he studied with Lawrence Hurst.  After that, he freelanced in New York while working towards a Professional Certificate from the Manhattan School of Music, and he was a bass fellow at the New World Symphony from 2012-2015.

We talk about life in 2021, auditions, Noah’s path through the music world, and much more.  Enjoy, and be sure to check out Noah’s website and follow him on YouTube!

Subscribe to the podcast to get these interviews delivered to you automatically!

Check out our Online Sheet Music Store with 100+ wide-ranging titles for bassists.

Listen to Contrabass Conversations with our free app for iOS, Android, and Kindle.

Check out my Beginner’s Classical Bass course, available exclusively from Discover Double Bass.

Thank you to our sponsors!

Dorico – Dorico helps you to write music notation, automatically producing printed results of exceptional quality — and plays it back with breathtaking realism. It is easy enough for anyone to learn, yet has hundreds of advanced notations, features, options and sounds to satisfy even the most demanding professionals.  With its streamlined, natural user interface, students and those with less experience in scoring can compose and arrange straight into Dorico, making learning the language of music notation much faster and more intuitive. Editing and making changes — such as instrument, time signature or key — are straightforward, with the notation instantly and correctly adapting to include them, reinforcing the learning outcome.

Upton Bass String Instrument Company – Upton’s Karr Model Upton Double Bass represents an evolution of our popular first Karr model, refined and enhanced with further input from Gary Karr. Since its introduction, the Karr Model with its combination of comfort and tone has gained a loyal following with jazz and roots players. The slim, long “Karr neck” has even become a favorite of crossover electric players.

Ear Trumpet Labs – They make hand-built mics out of Portland, OR and they have an excellent mic for upright bass called Nadine. The Nadine is a condenser mic with a clear natural sound and incredible feedback rejection. This mic is a completely new design — the head mounts in between the strings above the tailpiece with a rubber grommet, and the body securely straps to the tailpiece with velcro elastic. A 14-inch Mogami cable connects the two parts making it easy to place on any bass. It’s durable and holds up to the demanding needs of the instrument while offering excellent sound quality. Ear Trumpet Labs is offering a free t-shirt just for Contrabass listeners with the purchase of a mic, just visit EarTrumpetLabs.com/contrabass to claim yours and check out the Nadine!

Contrabass Conversations production team: