Next Level Bassist Teaching and Inspiration

My path to a successful career began with a few very fortunate
circumstances. The first and most important thing in my progression
from my first music lesson as a child to being principal of the CSO
was support from my parents. They signed me up for piano lessons
at age 4, and continued to cart me around to piano, cello and bass
lessons throughout my childhood. It’s important for every musician
to have an encounter that starts a fire within. It may be parents, a
great music teacher, or it could be a musician or ensemble you see in
a concert. We’re so lucky today to have a resource like Youtube, where
anyone with an interest in music can look up a video and start learning
by seeing and hearing.
My parents hooked me up with piano lessons from age four and cello
lessons from age 8. They made sure I got to my lessons and that I had
quality teachers, and this level of support so early on was a major
factor in my success. The next step beyond support was hard work
and dedication. These are the qualities you need to cultivate the skills
required to pursue music at a high level. I was not really excited about
music from age four to about age nine. I
was good at it, but my parents made me
practice. It didn’t really click for me until
I was 10 or 11 years old, and I realized
that I could excel and impress my friends,
which was pretty cool to me. At that
time, I began taking my own initiative
to practice all the time. I was setting my
own goals, which is a vital step in a
musician’s progress. These goals could
vary - a middle school ensemble solo, a
weekly lesson, learning a new piece -
but I think it was a fairly unusual trait for
a young person to set ambitious goals like
I was. I knew by the time I was 14 and
began playing bass that I wanted to join
an orchestra, and that I wanted to go to
Curtis, and so I started working toward
those goals.
Obviously, it’s a really big risk to make
that decision. There were only a handful
of students in my school doing anything
like this. I was lucky to have my older
sister as a role model, because she was
pursuing music and went to the Peabody
Conservatory. It was very helpful to have
that path laid out for me by someone in my family, and I became very
familiar with the conservatory vibe and what it would take to get in.
To sum it up, it takes support from your family and your educators, it
takes hard work and the ability to set realistic but ambitious goals, and
most important, the willingness to take risks. It takes a tremendous
amount of courage to say to your family and friends, “I’m going to
spend the rest of my life as a double bass player.” I would be willing to
bet these three things would be a recipe for success in any pursuit.
PASSING THE FLAME
Identifying what makes you tick is so important. What kind of music,
what genre, what atmosphere, what piece, what composer? When you
know that, it’s just a matter of going after it. Don’t hold back, don’t feel
any shame, and don’t worry about what anyone else thinks of you. As
long as it speaks to you, it’s worth chasing!
Since I was a young child, the most inspiring and fulfilling thing has
always been listening to live music. No matter what it is, as long as
it’s really great, I can connect with it. That includes Bach, jazz, rock
music, so many different things. I grew up in a small college town in
Ohio. There was a surprising amount of great music around, but not
nearly as much as most big cities. So, I was getting a hold of recordings.
Youtube didn’t exist when I was in high school! I remember
being on a family trip as a kid, and we stopped in a bookstore. I saw a
DVD of the Appalachian Waltz trio with Edgar Meyer, Yo-Yo Ma, and
Mark O’Connor, and I knew instantly that I had to have it! I probably
watched that DVD 200 times in one year - it was on all the time! The
chance to study Edgar’s magic on DVD was life changing. I was also
listening to recordings of Gary Karr, Yo-Yo Ma, Rostropovich and
other legendary string players. All my life I’ve been listening to music.
Every weekend while I was at Curtis, I was able to see the Philadelphia
Orchestra, and watch Hal Robinson play with the section. That was
the best education I ever could have asked for! There are also 5 or 6
recitals I’ve seen that have literally changed my
life, like hearing recitals by Maxim Vengerov,
Christian Tetzlaff and Yo-Yo Ma. That’s the stuff
that really inspired me.
I was very fortunate to go to Curtis and be
around great students. We weren’t just limited
to listening to bass recordings in the bass
studio, although the majority of the time we
were certainly listening to Edgar Meyer, Hal
Robinson, Ed Barker, and other great bassists.
We would also listen to Glenn Gould and other
great musicians interpret Bach. Live music is
where it’s at for me, it’s what I do for a living and
it’s how I communicate best. Even at the best
school or community in the world, the most you
can learn is from sitting down at a concert and
hearing a great musician play at the top of his or
her game. Learning to listen and being open to
really great music has been the most important
thing, and it’s what has kept me going. Now
I’m really lucky to go to work every single week
with incredible musicians. I get to work with
Riccardo Muti, Pierre Boulez, Bernard Haitink -
these monsters of music on the podium - and be
surrounded by wonderful music each week.
RECEIVING INSPIRATION ON STAGE
When it comes to a great conductor, I’m just looking for someone
to connect with my colleagues and me. Everyone has different styles,
different ways of conducting the beat, and so on, but that’s the very tip
of the iceberg. The truly great maestros connect with your soul and
your gut, and they bring out the best in you. I’ll never forget the very
first rehearsal I had with Muti and the Chicago Symphony - it was part
of my trial week, playing Brahms Symphony No. 2. I was very jazzed
up to be joining this orchestra for the first time, and everyone was
checking me out to see how I would do. Muti strutted out - the really
great conductors are immensely confident in everything they do. As
soon as he was out, he was running the show, making jokes and calling
the shots. We started playing Brahms, and right from the first phrase
with the cellos and basses, Muti was staring me down and bringing out
the sound from inside all of us. It’s hard to describe, but it’s an
12 SPRING 2014 NEXT LEVEL BASSIST