Interview Guests – Page 133

208: Guy Tuneh on transcriptions, live performance, and musical curiosity

Soloist and chamber musician Guy Tuneh returns to the podcast

Today’s episode features soloist, chamber musician, and recording artist Guy Tuneh. Guy was on the podcast way back in 2007, and a lot has changed for him in the intervening years. His previous interview was one of our most popular episodes of all time, and in this talk we go even deeper, digging into why Guy makes music, how he approaches every single note he plays, and what motivates him to search out new repertoire and bring it to the double bass.

Guy has been working on several new recording projects, and we feature two of them today. We are including an excerpt from Beethoven’s Romance in G Major before the interview, and we close out the episode with a complete track of Guy performing Bach’s Allemande from the Violin Partita in D minor.

You can learn about Guy’s upcoming solo appearances, recordings, and other details at his website guytuneh.com and on his Facebook page. We also have a video version of this episode on YouTube. Enjoy!

207: Claus Freudenstein on heavy metal, minibasses, and arranging

International Society of Bassists board member Claus Freudenstein is pushing boundaries and creating innovative projects in the world of the double bass

Today we’re featuring Claus Freudenstein, who is pushing the boundaries of the double bass in some really interesting ways. Claus is innovative on a number of fronts. He joined the world of the bass later in life than many people, and he came to it through heavy metal and the electric bass. This resonates greatly with me because this is the exact same way that I arrived at the bass.

Claus has taken this love of heavy metal and channeled it into the Bassmonsters, a bass ensemble that is expanding the repertoire into metal and bringing a whole new audience into the fold. We feature three clips from their first album Classic Meets Rock: Sweet Child O’ Mine by Guns & Roses, Creeping Death by Metallica, and Thriller by Michael Jackson. You can find this album on Spotify, Amazon, and iTunes.

Claus is looking for a new record label to publish the latest Bassmonsters release. He has some tracks to pass along, so listeners, if you have ideas for a new label for Claus, send him an email and let him know.

Claus has also been quite innovative in the world of teaching with his creation and popularization of the mini-bass. We discuss Claus’ work in education, his approach to repertoire, arranging and composing, and many other topics. Enjoy!

206: Auditioning for Music Schools

Trevor Jones and Jason Heath talk music school options at the 2016 Chicago Bass Festival

Trevor Jones and I have done joint clinics in the past, but this is the first one since restarting the podcast, and I figured that it would make sense to put it out this week since we just released our conversation a few days ago.

This talk was held at Ravinia’s Bennett Gordon Hall as part of the 2016 Chicago Bass Festival, which is an event put on by the Midwest Young Artists Conservatory. Michael Cameron of the University of Illinois and Allan Dennis, former double bass professor at the University of Wisconsin and the MYA executive director, were both in the audience, so you’ll hear us refer to both of them a couple of times during the talk.

I left Curtis off of my list of schools putting out successful auditions, but of course that should be at the top of the list! My mistake.

Some of the questions from the audience are kind of hard to hear, you’ll get the gist of the question as soon as Trevor and I start talking again.

We talk about Don Greene’s excellent books on auditioning—all three are highly recommended:

205: Trevor Jones on musical pit work, scheduling creativity, and finding balance

Multi-talented double bassist Trevor Jones is today’s featured guest.

Today’s episode features double bassist Trevor Jones. It actually amazes me that this is the first time that Trevor has been on the podcast. Trevor kind of does it all: he studied classical bass with Rob Kassinger at DePaul University but got a music education degree as well He has played for years in the rock band Molehill but also maintains a full-time performing schedule as a theater musician, and he has a salaried double bass teaching job at Illinois Wesleyan University as well.

About Trevor:

Based in Chicago, independent artist Trevor Jones works in a variety of musical settings. He performs with regional orchestras throughout the Midwest. He has also recorded for numerous artists and has co-written and recorded three albums: Tin God, Equinox, and Hearts on Fire with his Chicago-based alternative rock group Molehill. Trevor is currently the Instructor of Double Bass at Illinois Wesleyan University.

Trevor is the upright and electric bassist at The Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire, IL. Highlights include Jeff®-Award Winning Musical Hero (2012) reprised in 2014 at Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, FL. World Premiere of October Sky in Fall 2015. For the Glory with music by Tony Award® nominee Frank Wildhorn (Jekyll and Hyde, The Scarlet Pimpernel) at Majestic Theatre in Gettysburg, PA. Battlecry by Paul Bogaev (Aida, Spiderman).

Trevor grew up in Gettysburg, PA and studied double bass with Duane Botterbusch of the Harrisburg Symphony and continued with Andrew Kohn at West Virginia University where he earned a degree in Music Education. In 2009 he completed his Master’s degree in Music Performance at DePaul University where he studied with Rob Kassinger of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. While studying at DePaul, Trevor performed with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.

Trevor’s alternative rock project Molehill performs at some of Chicago’s most prominent venues and tours throughout the country. Highlights include appearances at CBS Studio Chicago, Summerfest, SXSW, and Canadian Music Week. Trevor was awarded an ASCAP+ Award for his songwriting with Molehill.

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.

204: Tips for Teachers with Peter Tambroni

Double bassist and music education Peter Tambroni is today’s featured guest

Today’s podcast features a conversation with Peter Tambroni, who was an early guest on the podcast back in 2007 on episode 32. Pete is the author of An Introduction to Bass Playing, which is now in its seventh edition, and is an active bass performer, teacher, and author. You can learn more about Pete on his website petertambroni.com.

About Peter:

Peter Tambroni received his Master of Music in Double Bass Performance from the University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign and his Bachelor of Music in Music Education from the Crane School of Music. He has taught elementary, middle school, and high school strings and is a former faculty member of the State University of New York at Plattsburgh. Peter has been an orchestra director in Mannheim School District 83 since 2001.

From 1998 – 2005 he taught and coached at the Crane School of Music’s summer youth program. In 2006 he was the Mannheim Middle School’s PTA Teacher of the year.

Peter is an active double bassist performing throughout the Chicago area. He has performed with professional orchestras in New York and Illinois and in 2000 appeared on national television with the Bozo Super Sunday Show.

As a writer, he has been published several times in the international journal American String Teacher and on EnergyAddict.com, the website of best-selling author, Jon Gordon. His book, An Introduction to Double Bass Playing, is available at www.lulu.com/tambroni.

He also created and maintains the blogs MostlyBass.com and EvolvingEducator.com

Peter can reached via email at tambroni AT gmail DOT com