Amazing Bass!   Amazing Place! Guest Master Classes 2008-2009 School Year Edgar Meyer, International Soloist and Composer Ira Gold, National Symphony, Washington DC Lynda Houghton, Cathy Elliot, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, London Travis Gore, Seattle Symphony  Victor Wooten,  Bass Guitar Virtuoso Guest Master classes with leading international performers and teachers provide our double bass students with valuable learning opportunities.  Interaction with guest experts enriches the learning experience by stimulating and inspiring students with ideas and concepts that broaden horizons.  In the process, students make important professional connections.

DOUBLE BASS MASTER CLASS with EDGAR MEYER Wednesday, September 24, 2008 CU College of Music   Performers from the CU College of Music Double Bass Studio: Mitchell Montealegre   Bottesini Concerto No.2 in B minor, 1st mvt Carter Smith   Bottesini Tarantella Benjamin de Kock     Bach 3rd Cello Suite, Bourree 1 & 2

EDGAR MEYER:  Prominently established as a unique and masterful double bassist, Edgar Meyer has an active career as both a performer and a composer. Hailed by the New Yorker as “...the most remarkable virtuoso in the relatively unchronicled history of his instrument,” Mr. Meyer’s unparalleled technique and musicianship in combination with his gift for composition have brought him to the fore, where he is appreciated by a vast, varied audience. His uniqueness in the field was recognized by a MacArthur Award in 2002.  Mr. Meyer’s most recent album is a self-titled solo recording on which he wrote and played all of the pieces on instruments including piano, guitar, mandolin, dobro, banjo, gamba, and double bass. As a solo classical bassist, Mr. Meyer has released a concerto album with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra featuring Bottesini’s Gran Duo with Joshua Bell; Meyer’s Double Concerto for Bass and Cello with Yo-Yo Ma; Bottesini’s Bass Concerto No. 2 and Meyer’s Concerto in D for Bass. Just prior to that, he released an album with three of Bach’s Unaccompanied Suites for Cello. In the fall of 2007, Sony/BMG honored his remarkable artistry with a compilation disc featuring highlights of his nine award-winning recordings on the label, and several of his recordings were featured in The War, a recent documentary by renowned filmmaker Ken Burns.  As a composer, Mr. Meyer has carved out a remarkable and unique niche in the musical world. In the 2006-2007 season, he premiered a triple concerto for double bass, banjo, and tabla (written and performed with Béla Fleck and Zakir Hussain) for the opening of the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, as well as a piece for double bass and piano performed with Emanuel Ax in New York, Washington, DC, and Nashville. During the 2005-2006 season, he premiered the revised version of his Double Bass Concerto No. 2 with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and a piece for violin and piano performed by Joshua Bell at the Montalvo Arts Center and New York’s Lincoln Center. Mr. Meyer premiered his Double Bass Concerto No. 1 in 1993 with Edo de Waart and the Minnesota Orchestra, and in 1995, he premiered his Quintet for Bass and String Quartet in collaboration with the Emerson String Quartet, which was later recorded on the Deutsche Grammophon label. Also, in 1995, he premiered his Double Concerto for Bass and Cello, in collaboration with Carter Brey, cello and Jeffrey Kahane conducting the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival Orchestra. Mr. Meyer has also performed with the Boston Symphony under Seiji Ozawa, featuring the premiere of one of his own works, the Meyer Double Concerto for Bass and Cello with Yo-Yo Ma. In October 1999, Mr. Meyer’s violin concerto written for violinist Hilary Hahn was premiered and recorded by Ms. Hahn with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra led by Hugh Wolff.

DOUBLE BASS MASTER CLASS with IRA GOLD, double bassist in The National Symphony Orchestra, Washington, DC Sunday, Feb 1, 2009 CU College of Music Performers from the CU College of Music Double Bass Studio: James Foster         Schubert Arpeggioni Sonata, 1st mvt Paul Aubert               Koussevitsky Concerto, 2nd mvt Antonio Ortiz            Bottesini Concerto No.2, 1st mvt Kyle Elkins                                      Mozart 40, 4th mvt Alexandra Reeder                   Beethoven 9, recitative  Tyler Rusco                   Beethoven 5, 3rd mvt, Scherzo Scott Mehring                      Beethoven 5, 3rd mvt, Trio Carter Smith             Schubert Great, 3rd mvt Scherzo   Antonio Ortiz                                  Mozart 40, 4th mvt Paul Aubert                                        Strauss Don Juan Mitchell Montealegre Mozart 35, 4th mvt; Brahms 2, 4th mvt; Strauss Heldenleben

Ira Gold earned his Bachelor of Music degree at Boston University's College of Fine Arts, and his Master of Music degree at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music, where he won the strings division of the 2005 Concerto Competition.  Mr. Gold performed the Vanhal Bass Concerto with the Shepherd School of Music Chamber Orchestra in 2006.  His primary teachers include Edwin Barker and Paul Ellison, and additional studies with Albert Laszlo, Kenneth Harper, Dennis Whittaker, Mark Shapiro, and Harry Lantz. Mr. Gold has performed with several American orchestras, as section bass with the Minnesota Orchestra and as principal bassist with the San Francisco Symphony and Detroit Symphony.  He has attended the Domaine Forget Music Academy, Bach Festival Leipzig, Aspen Music Festival, and Tanglewood Music Center, where he was a recipient of the Maurice Schwartz Prize.  Mr. Gold spent several summers at the International Festival Institute at Round Top both as a student, and, during the summer of 2004, as a member of the bass faculty.  He has given master classes and recitals at the Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University, James Madison University, University of Maryland, and the Chautauqua Music Festival.  Mr. Gold has taught at George. Mason University, and in the National Symphony Orchestra’s Youth Fellowship Program and Summer Music Institute.  In addition to his position with the National Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Gold is a member of the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, and has performed with the Fessenden Ensemble, National Gallery of Art Orchestra, and the 21st Century Consort.

DOUBLE BASS MASTER CLASS  with LYNDA HOUGHTON & CATHY ELLIOTT, double bassists with The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Thursday, February 19, 2009 CU College of Music Performers from the CU College of Music Double Bass Studio: Alexandra Reeder     Bach Orchestral Suite No. 2, Double & Badinerie Timothy Crawford    Amelier Sonata, 3rd movement

Lynda Houghton is Principal Bass of the world-renowned Academy of St. Martin in the Fields chamber orchestra, and the City of London Sinfonia. She has regularly been invited to the Sangat Chamber Music festival in Mumbai, India, playing with Gil Shahan and Anthony Marwood.   Recently, at the invitation of the Gramophone Artist of the year Julia Fischer, she performed in the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival in Germany where she performed Schubert's Trout Quintet and Max Bruch's Octet.  Her BBC recording of Schubert's Octet with the Britten Sinfonia has been broadcasted. Cathy Elliott performs with Academy of St Martin in the Fields chamber orchestra and London Musici/Rambert, and joined the London Mozart Players in the early 1990’s.  She teaches privately at Junior Guildhall, and is active in training string teachers. Cathy is president of the British Branch of European String Teachers’ Association.   She is the author and publisher of various books for young string players.

DOUBLE BASS MASTER CLASS  with TRAVIS GORE, member of the Seattle Symphony Tuesday, March 17, 2009, 4 - 6:30 pm C-199 Chamber Hall,  CU College of Music           (In the photo, Travis Gore is standing behind Paul Erhard) Performers from the CU College of Music Double Bass studio: James Foster, Schubert Arpeggioni Sonata, 1st mvt Zac Flynn,  Eccles Sonata, 1st & 2nd mvts  Alexandra Reeder,   Dittersdorf  Concerto,  1st mvt Paul Aubert,  Koussevitsky Concerto,  3rd mvt Antonio Ortiz,  Bottesini Concerto No. 2, 3rd mvt Margaret McDonald, piano Kyle Elkins,  Bach 3rd Cello Suite,  Allemande Ross Gullo, Mozart Symphony 40, 1st mvt Scott Mehring,  Beethoven Symphony 9,  4th mvt recitative Mitch Montealegre, Bach 3rd Cello Suite,  Courante

Travis Gore joined the Seattle Symphony in 2008. He joined San Diego Symphony in 2006 as a section member, and was acting associate principal for the 2007-08 season.  He served on the double bass faculty of San Diego State University. Before joining the San Diego Symphony, he was a member of the New World Symphony in Miami.  He has performed as principal bass with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and has held substitute positions with the Houston Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, and mst recently the Los Angeles Philharmonic.  Travis Gore is an active studio musician and has played on such recent sound tracks as Vlkyrie, Dragon Age, Halo, and worked as principal bass on the orchestral soundtrack for the nee Try Anastasio album.  Travis Gore earned his masters degree from Rice University as a student of Tim Pitts and Paul Ellison, and his bachelors degree from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music where he studied with Albert Laszlo. From 1999 to 2004, Travis held a fellowship to the Aspen Music Festival, studying with Albert Laszlo, Bruce Bransby, Christpher Hanulik, and Eugene Levinson.  From 2005-6, he attended the Verbier Festival in Switzerland under the coaching of Leigh Mesh.

Victor Wooten Bass Guitar / Musicianship Clinic Friday April 17,  12-1:30 College of Music  Rehearsal Room E-160 Zac Flynn, Portrait of Tracy Carter Smith, Original Composition

Virtuoso Bassist Victor Wooten embraced the musical life early, growing up on the West Coast in a military family in which his older brothers all played and sang.   In 1989, Bela Fleck assembled Victor, his brother Roy (a.k.a. Future Man) and harmonica-playing keyboardist Howard Levy to perform with him, and the Flecktones were born. After three highly successful albums, Levy left the Flecktones in 1993, and the band's new trio format enabled Victor to develop and display a staggering array of fingerboard skills that turned him into a bass hero of Pastorian-proportions and helped earn the band their first GRAMMY Award. With the Flecktones in full flight, Victor set his sights on a solo career, first forming Bass Extremes with fellow low-end lord Steve Bailey, and finally releasing his critically-acclaimed solo debut, A Show of Hands, in 1996.  Wooten took his solo show on the road with drummer J.D. Blair. Wooten won two Nashville Music Awards for Bassist of the Year and is the only three-time winner of Bass Player magazine's Bass Player of the Year award. With the honors came scores of session and sideman calls, leading to recordings and performances with artists like Branford Marsalis, Mike Stern, Bruce Hornsby, Chick Corea, Dave Matthews, Prince, Gov't Mule, Susan Tedeschi, Vital Tech Tones (with Scott Henderson and Steve Smith), the Jaco Pastorius Word Of Mouth Big Band, and the soundtrack to the Disney film Country Bears.  After a four-year hiatus from solo recordings, Wooten released Soul Circus on the Vanguard label in 2005.  Wooten joined the Heads Up label in 2008 with the release of Palmystery, a twelve-track set that embraces a range of styles - jazz, funk, pop, soul, gospel, world music and more - and boasts a diverse guest list that includes Mike Stern, Richard Bona, Keb' Mo' and several others. Whether his medium is music or the written word, Wooten sees the creative process in the context of the eternal question about whether a tree falling in a forest really makes a sound if there's no one there to hear it. "A song is just an idea until someone brings it into the world," he says. "That's the great mystery of music or any creative endeavor. The power is in the palm of your hand. You just have to release it to the world." For more information on Victor Wooten visit   http://www.myspace.com/victorwooten

Amazing Bass!    Amazing Place!