Contrabass Conversations

Darija Andzakovic is a freelance bassist and musicologist specializing in historical instruments, the Viennese bass, and the music of Johannes Matthias Sperger. While researching Sperger's manuscripts for her doctoral dissertation, she discovered through melodic and handwriting analysis that the work long cataloged as Sperger's Fifth Bass Concerto was actually composed by Ignaz Pleyel. Darija join...

At just 18, London-based double bassist Eduard Marcu became the first bassist to win Junior Guildhall's prestigious Lutine Prize . Born in Romania and raised in London, Eduard began playing bass at age 10, developed his craft at Junior Guildhall, and performed with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain before beginning his studies at the Royal Academy of Music . Eduard joins Jason to talk...

Chris Johnson is a New York–based bassist, educator, and creative force whose career spans the Sphinx Virtuosi , New York City Ballet, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and a wide range of chamber, commercial, and recording projects. He is also the founder of  Strauss Hauss , a concert series that brings music, food, and conversation together while placing artists and communit...

Jeanette Adams is a bassist, educator, and member of the nationally touring progressive bluegrass trio Stillhouse Junkies . Raised in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and trained at Lawrence University, she now lives in Colorado, where she performs around 150–200 shows a year and helps expand access to string education through the Aspen Music Festival's educational programs. We talk about the changing l...

Daniel Chiva Sanz returns to the podcast to discuss his latest project, Daily Mozart , a new technique book that applies concepts from his School of Patience books to the second movements and minuets of Mozart symphonies. Daniel shares how his work as a performer, teacher, and creator has led him toward a brass-inspired approach to sound, pitch center, and hand-shape precision, and he reflects on...

Mark Morton joins Jason to discuss his decades-long project creating practical Urtext editions of Giovanni Bottesini's music. Drawing on 3,656 photographs of manuscripts from the Biblioteca Palatina in Parma, Mark has completed editions of 11 works so far, with the goal of eventually covering all 84 of Bottesini's compositions. He explains how he compares multiple surviving versions, preserves the...

Cole Davis is a bassist, composer, educator, and the creator behind Better Bass Lessons , where he brings a playful, practical approach to jazz bass education. In this episode, Cole and Jason Heath trade lessons across the classical/jazz divide, building on their previous New Simandl collaboration and digging into Cole's ideas around walking lines, open strings, and groove. Jason then turns the ta...

New York City jazz bassist Neal Miner joins the podcast to talk about his new book of original bass-feature compositions , an 11-song collection designed for students and professionals to use in ensemble settings.  Neal shares how longtime collaborator Chris Byars encouraged the project, how the book grew into play-alongs and a  My Music Masterclass , and how his work as a bassist, teacher, compos...

Kathryn Schulmeister joins the podcast to talk about Imagining Hands , her debut solo album on Protomaterial Records . A bassist, improviser, composer, and University of Wisconsin faculty member , Kathryn brings together contemporary music, storytelling, extended technique, and deeply personal experience in a project shaped by her time at UC San Diego, her work with Mark Dresser, and the narrative...

SoJung Kim joins the podcast to share her journey from discovering the double bass in Korea to joining the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra . A graduate student at the Colburn Conservatory studying with Peter Lloyd, SoJung has performed with the One Korea Youth Orchestra and Orchestra Ensemble Seoul, spent summers at the Pacific Music Festival and Music Academy of the West , and first came to the in...

Orion Miller joins the podcast to talk about his path from growing up in New York City to joining the San Francisco Symphony bass section. Orion studied at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University with Tim Pitts and spent formative summers at places like Tanglewood , Music Academy of the West , and Aspen Music Festival . We dig into Orion's audition journey, including getting cut from the S...

Dominik Wagner returns to the podcast for a wide-ranging conversation recorded during his visit to San Francisco for the 2026 Golden Gate Bass Camp . A prizewinner for many major solo competitions, Dominik has built an extraordinary career as a soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, and pedagogue, with albums including Giovanni Bottesini - Revolution of Bass , Chapters - A Double Bass Story...

Don Prell passed away in 2026 at age 97. Born in 1929, Don went on the road with the Frank Ortega Band, played with people like Buddy Rich and Chet Baker, and was in the original Bud Shank Quartet. He played for the San Francisco Symphony for 30 years and, after retirement, formed his own group called the Sea Bop Ensemble, which played at various San Francisco spots, including the legendary Bay Vi...

Noa Eve (NoaBass) joins the podcast to celebrate the long-awaited release of *Late Bloomer ,* a debut album that blends virtuosic arco playing with the rhythmic grit of bluegrass, old-time, and acoustic music-making. We talk about the "10 years in the making" arc from Jason first hearing Noa play in the Bay Area to recording the album over three intense days in Portland, plus what it takes to brin...

Hal Robinson joins the podcast for a wide-ranging conversation on bass pedagogy, sound, and the practical fundamentals that actually move the needle. Hal reflects on his path from early studies with Paul Ellison to a career that spans major orchestras and shares how working alongside influential musicians like François Rabbath and Edgar Meyer helped shape a flexible, student-first teaching philoso...

Bassist, composer, and educator Mary Ann McSweeney joins Jason to talk about a career that spans Bay Area roots, L.A. training, and the demanding, ever-shifting world of Broadway and studio work. Mary Ann shares how piano and violin shaped her musicianship, what it took to become a stronger reader, and much more Enjoy, give Mary Ann a follow on Instagram , and check out this feature of her on YouT...

Caleb Quillen returns to the podcast to talk about the path that took him from growing up in Sugar Land, Texas, to principal bass of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Along the way, he reflects on formative teachers, including Dennis Whittaker and Paul Ellison, the influence of the Boston bass tradition, and much more. Check out our text/media version of this conversation and our interview with Caleb...

Photo credit: Oscar Benjamin Berg Bassist, improviser, and genre-crosser Georgia Wartel Collins joins us today to talk about the winding path that led her to New York, via Gothenburg, Trondheim, and Amsterdam, and how a deeply musical family shaped everything from early street performances to a life that's always moved freely between styles. Georgia also shares how rock and grunge became real crea...

Glasgow-based bassist David Bowden joins the show on release day for Unsung Songs , a solo double bass record shaped by years of gigging and arranging. David talks about coming up in London before moving to Glasgow for the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, finding a creative home in Scotland's close-knit jazz scene, and how folk music and "sounding like yourself" became central to the way he thinks...

Rosie Moon joins us today to share the story behind *Twelve Bees In A Jar , her* multi-year Dragonetti project exploring his music on gut strings, a three-string bass, and a convex "Dragonetti" bow. Rosie talks about how a chance encounter with a bow at a UK bass shop kicked off a deep dive into historical equipment, technique, and the surprisingly big that happens when you take a string off the i...

Bowen Ha joined the San Francisco Symphony at the start of the 2024–25 season after training at Juilliard with Timothy Cobb and Harold Robinson, and appearing as a substitute with major orchestras. Born in Shanghai, Bowen's path ran from piano to cello and finally to bass, through Interlochen, the Shanghai Conservatory's affiliated program, and Juilliard. We dig into the nuts-and-bolts of what cha...

John Goldsby returns to the podcast to celebrate Big Band Bass , a project that spotlights the double bass at the front of the band alongside the legendary WDR Big Band and arranger/conductor Bob Mintzer . We talk about what it felt like to close a 30-year run in one of the world's rare full-time jazz ensemble jobs, and how stepping away has opened up space for hand-picked gigs, home projects, and...

Valentina Ciardelli , double bass professor at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and an active performer/educator, returns to the podcast to talk about a project that goes way beyond the practice room: fixing the chaos of traveling with large instruments. Check out Valentina's work and latest updates on her website . We dig into Valentina's advocacy work to create clearer, non-discret...

Stephan Crump is a Brooklyn-based bassist, composer, and educator whose work moves fluidly between groove, spacious sound-worlds, and collective improvisation. We dig into the making of Slow Water , the magnetism of deep feel, and how growing up in Memphis—and spending a lot of life near the Mississippi—shaped the way Stephan hears music as ecology, storytelling, and energy in motion. We talk abou...

Michał Bylina is a Polish bassist and composer whose work bridges early music performance and new music for the instrument. In this conversation, Michał shares how a love of the past pulled them toward gut strings, Baroque style, and the Vienna bass tradition, plus the path from studying in Kraków to a year studying in Brussels with Korneel Le Compte. We dig into Michał's composing process, from w...