John Grillo – Page 4

CBC 112: Max Dimoff interview 2

Max Dimoff double bass.png Contrabass Conversations Co-host John Grillo and I are concluding our interview with Cleveland Orchestra Principal Bass Max Dimoff this week. Before winning his job with the Cleveland Orchestra, Max served as Principal Bass of the San Antonio Symphony and Section Bass for the Grant Park Symphony and Seattle Symphony.

In this second segment of our interview with Max, we cover the use of rhythms in practicing solo and orchestral music, why he finds warm-up exercises useful, standing versus sitting, and audition preparation advice.

Max’s Warm-Ups

Max Dimoff Warm-Up Packet (PDF)

In addition to serving as Principal Bass with the Cleveland Orchestra, Max is on faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music along with Jeff Bradetich, his former teacher from Northwestern University. Max and Jeff team teach the CIM bass studio in a very interesting arrangement which we discuss during our interview.

Max’s colleague Jeff Bradetich recently appeared on Contrabass Conversations as well. Here are links to Jeff’s interview, which may be interesting to delve into for listeners as well:

More interviews co-hosted by John Grillo:

Lawrence Hurst – Indiana University
Barrie Kolstein – Kolstein & Sons
Jack Budrow – Michigan State
Owen Lee – Cincinnati Symphony
Ranaan Meyer – Time for Three
Dan Krekeler – Metropolitan Opera

Links:

I Fight Dragons (music heard on this show)
Jim Goodrich – my co-panelist for the Chicago Music Commission
International Society of Bassists – convention in June!
String Emporium – advertiser
Upton Bass Co. – advertiser

CBC 109: Max Dimoff interview

Max Dimoff Douuble Bass.png

Co-host John Grillo and I are interviewing Cleveland Orchestra Principal Bass Max Dimoff this week on Contrabass Conversations. Before winning his job with the Cleveland Orchestra, Max served as Principal Bass of the San Antonio Symphony and Section Bass for the Grant Park Symphony and Seattle Symphony.

In this first segment of our interview with Max, we delve into his approach to technique on the double bass, focusing on his warm-up exercises for the double bass. You can download this packet through the following link and follow along with the exercises as we discuss them with Max.

Max’s Warm-Ups

Max Dimoff Warm-Up Packet (PDF)

Max’s colleague Jeff Bradetich recently appeared on Contrabass Conversations as well. Here are links to Jeff’s interview, which may be interesting to delve into for listeners as well:

More interviews co-hosted by John Grillo:

Lawrence Hurst – Indiana University
Barrie Kolstein – Kolstein & Sons
Jack Budrow – Michigan State
Owen Lee – Cincinnati Symphony
Ranaan Meyer – Time for Three
Dan Krekeler – Metropolitan Opera

CBC 108: Dan Krekeler interview part 2

Dan Krekeler.png We’re concluding our interview (check out part 1 here) with Metropolitan Opera Orchestra bassist Dan Krekeler this week on the podcast. John Grillo of classicalmusicnews.tv and I co-interviewed Dan, which was particularly cool since we’ve both known Dan for many years. I played with Dan in the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and John went to Indiana University with him as an undergraduate. It’s great to see an old friend have such great professional success, and it was a lot of fun to catch up with Dan and hear about his experiences on the road to a major orchestral position.

In our conversations about audition prep, Dan brings up musician coach Don Greene, and I realized that we’ve never actually talked about Don before on any blog posts or podcasts. This is surprising, since I’m a big fan of Don’s concepts and strategies for successful auditioning, so we’ll have to delve more into that topic at a later date.

If you’re in the mood to learn about the world of opera bass playing, these episodes from our archives would be a good start:

CBC 106: Dan Krekeler interview

Dan Krekeler 1.jpg

We’re featuring an interview with Metropolitan Opera Orchestra bassist Dan Krekeler this week on the podcast. John Grillo of classicalmusicnews.tv and I co-interviewed Dan, which was particularly cool since we’ve both known Dan for many years. I played with Dan in the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and John went to Indiana University with him as an undergraduate. It’s great to see an old friend have such great professional success, and it was a lot of fun to catch up with Dan and hear about his experiences on the road to a major orchestral position.

If you’re in the mood to learn about the world of opera bass playing, these episodes from our archives would be a good start:

CBC 73: Jack Budrow interview

Budrow We’re chatting with Michigan State University and Interlochen Arts Academy double bass instructor Jack Budrow this week on Contrabass Conversations. In addition to helping place students in major orchestras across the globe, Jack has had a very distinguished performance career as a former member of the Houston Symphony, Santa Fe Opera Orchestra, and as Principal Bass of the North Carolina Symphony.

Jack discussed several topics of great interest to double bass students and performers with co-host John Grillo and me, including repertoire he uses in his teaching, essential skills for auditioning, and how the educational orientation has changed for music performance students over the past few decades. We chatted at great length with Jack for this interview, and we’ll be wrapping up the remainder of this interview in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for more great content with this influential and engaging music educator and performer in the coming weeks. Enjoy!