Francesco Siragusa

Francesco Siragusa is the first double bass soloist player of the Milan La Scala Orchestra and of the La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra. He has won the most important international music competitions. He was born in 1974; he started studying the double bass at the age of 10. His teacher was his father. He obtained a first class degree in 1995 and attends several training courses with Franco Petracchi.

During his studies at the Conservatory, he won the first prize at the Wherter Benzi National Contest for Double Bass Playing and passed his first audition for the Teatro Massimo Vincenzo Bellini Orchestra in the city of Catania.

In 1999 he won the first prize at the Giovanni Bottesini international competition for double bass players and the second prize at the CIEM international competition of Geneva, thus becoming a reputed artist all over the word.

In 2002, when he was just 27 years old, he became first double bass player at La Scala theatre.

He exhibited himself as soloist in Italy and abroad: at the Alighieri theatre (Ravenna), the Dal Verme theatre (Milan), the Stadthalle (Hagen), Institut National Genevois (Geneva), the Auditorium of Aarau, the Macedonio Alcalà (Oxaca, Mexico), the La Scala theatre (Milan) and so on.

He is a member of the group "I Virtuosi del teatro alla Scala". With this group he exhibited himself at the Musikverein of Vienna and played (for the first time at the La Scala theatre) the Bottesini's Allegro de Concert in Mendelssohn style. His performances are very much appreciated thanks to his extraordinary temperament and to the great singability he gives to double bass.

He is also a teacher: he has run for 4 years the advanced training courses at the Perosi Academy of Biella, he runs advanced training courses at the La Scala Academy and runs regularly national and international masterclasses.

Norbert Duka

NORBERT DUKA was born in Hungary in 1941 and began to study doublebass at 14. At 16 he was accepted to the Franz-Liszt-Academy in Budapest and studied with Prof. Zoltan Tibay, winning first prize of the academy's competition at 17. Following his studies he performed at several Jazz-Festivals in Europe with amongst others Leo Wright, Carmell Jones and Slide Hampton. He finally continued his studies of classical doublebass at the Musikhochschule Berlin with amongst others Prof. Rainer Zepperitz. At present Nor¬bert Duka was doublebassist with the German Opera Berlin, where he was appointed Chamber Musician in 1984.

Along with his orchestra work he has performed numerous solo-concerts both nationally and internationally and has made many radio Performances. His recording of three Hoffmeister-Stringquartets with solobass has created a worldwide Sensation and has been acclaimed enthusiastically in both musicpress and -world. His recently released Compact Disc again proves his virtuosity and the great flexibility of the double-bass when played by a gifted virtuoso. Norbert Dukas primary aim is to extend the acoustical and expressive possibilities of the doublebass thus making it comparable to the more common solo instruments. He plays on a fine, old Italian Master Instrument of the eighteenth Century.

He not only performs works originally written for the doublebass but also falls back upon transcription of compositions written for violin and Violoncello to extensively ex-haust the versatility and possibilities of his instrument. Several contemporary composers have dedicated works to Norbert Duka and he is continuously striving for new compo¬sitions to be written for the doublebass.

In the pedagogical field Norbert Duka is very active also having for instance been guest lecturer for the Young German Philharmonie several times. Many of his students have entered positions in great orchestras after their studies with him.

Hiroshi Ikematsu

Brazilian-born Japanese Hiroshi has gained his fame through a variety of music activities. He is uniquely talented and regarded as one of the leading contrabassists in Japan.

Hiroshi started to play the contrabass at the age of 19, learning from Shunsaku Tsutsumi. During his university years at the Toho Gakuen College, he regularly attended workshops and festivals by Gary Karr, the world’s leading solo bassist and teacher based in Canada. In 1989 Hiroshi joined the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, and he became Principal Contrabassist there in 1994.

Hiroshi has established a strong name as a solo contrabassist in Japan. He has played with numerous distinguished musicians, and successfully released three solo CDs nationwide. He has also led a string ensemble, Vega, as well as founding a contrabass ensemble, and was the core member of a group called Pleiade Quintet, well known for its performance of contemporary music. He has taught at Kunitachi College of Music as well as the Toho Gakuen College in Tokyo.

Hiroshi immigrated to New Zealand with his family, officially joining the NZSO as the Principal Contrabassist in April 2006. New Zealand is the perfect place for him to indulge his interests of trout fishing, camping, soccer and spending time with his two children.

Wolfgang Harrer

Wolfgang Harrer was born in Vienna in 1953 and he was six years old when he had his first piano lesson. Wolfgang Harrer started playing the double bass at the Vienna Conservatory when he was 17 and a year later he became a student of Ludwig Streicher’s, the greatest double bass player of his time, at the University for Music, Vienna. Wolfgang Harrer also studied conducting, theory of music and education.

Wolfgang Harrer was co-principal of the double bass group of the Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna from 1978 to 1996, and principal for the Vienna Chamber Opera from 1979 to 1982. He has worked as a double bass professor since 1996 and since then performs regularly as a guest with the Vienna State Opera Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra.

After being awarded a degree in 1979, Wolfgang Harrer was employed by his former professor as his personal assistant at the Vienna University for Music. Wolfgang Harrer has been a double bass professor at the University of Music Saarland in Germany since 1996, and he is also head of the orchestra music department there. He has also taught at various courses and masterclasses in Europe, Asia and the USA.

Chamber music groups such as Melos Quartett, Klangforum, Die Reihe, Ensemble des 20. Jahrhunderts, Ensemble Kontrapunkte, and the Alt-Wiener-Octet have invited Wolfgang Harrer to perform with them. He has played in several ensembles through the years covering a wide range of styles from renaissance music on original instruments to the most current modern avantgarde.

Wolfgang Harrer’s published works have been produced under the Vienna Bass Edition label of the mvam publishing house.

He has been a member of the jury at several competitions.

His solo concerts with piano or orchestra accompaniment have led him through Austria, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Cyprus, Philippines, Taiwan, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Panama and China. He has recorded various CDs and performed for numerous radio and television stations.

Daniel Marillier

Daniel Marillier began to play the double bass at the age of seven in the class of his father André Marillier in Nice.

He entered the Paris Conservatoire National Superior de Musique in 1977. There he was taught by Jean-Marc Rollez and was influenced by Rollez’s ambitious vision for the double bass as a concert instrument. He won various prizes, including the Special Prize of the Jury at the International Competition on the Isle of Man. Daniel Marillier became principal double bass in the Orchestre de Nice, and the Orchestre de Strasbourg and, in 1984 at the age of twenty two, principal double bass (called: super-soloist) in the Orchestra of the Opéra National de Paris . He also taught, becoming professor at the National Conservatory of Strasbourg and assistant professor in Lyon at the National Conservatory. He is currently professor at the C.N.R of Boulogne Billancourt and teaches during the summer at various academies including Nice, Flaine, Abaye de Floreffe in Belgium.

His career as a concert performer has taken him all over the world, with concerts in North America, Taiwan and Japan as well as Germany, Italy and France. In December 1999 he served on Jury of the International violin-making competition in Paris and featured with Anne-Sophie Mutter in the final gala concert. Daniel Marillier has recorded Prestige of the Double Bass with BNL ( Rachmaninov, Ravel, Paganini...) and the Singing of the Double Bass with the Orchestre d’Auvergne, under the direction of F. X. Bilger (Concertino by Larson, Funeral Music by Hindemith...).

Daniel Marillier plays a modern double bass, designed and built by Patrick Charton, the Gold Medallist of the 1999 Paris International Violin-making Competition. For more than fifteen years Marillier and Charton have collaborated on research into double bass design, with an emphasis on modern playing requirements - rich timbre from the bass to the treble, power and playing ease. His bow, also modern, has been built in the same sprit by the bow makers Augagneur and Bergeron.

Christine Hoock

works internationally as a soloist, in chamber music ensembles, and in orchestras. She has performed, among others, at Schleswig-Holstein Musikfestival, Lucerne Festival, San Sebastian Festival, KlangBogen Wien, Festival de Música de Canarias, Feldkirch Festival, Rheingau Musikfestival, Musik Triennale Köln and at the Festivals in Berlin and Salzburg. Concert tours have taken her to Japan, China, the US, South America, Europe, and Russia.

During her studies with Günter Klaus in Frankfurt and Franco Petracchi in Geneva, Christine Hoock founded the “Frankfurter Kontrabass Quartett” (Frankfurt Double Bass Quartet), which gained international recognition with its concerts, radio and television recordings, and the CD “Quattro Contra Bassi”/ Dabringhaus&Grimm.

A prize-winner of international competitions, she was appointed principal bass of the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne when still a young artist. Christine has made several recordings in collaboration with European radio stations. Her solo CDs “Bassa Nova“, “Contrabajisimo”, and “worldwidebass” are published by Ambitus: www.ambitus.de. She also produced a play-along practice CD of the Dittersdorf Concerto for students.

Christine Hoock is professor for double bass at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg and, besides her busy concert schedule, holds master classes at international academies and festivals. She is a jury member at competitions and, in collaboration with Jeunesses Musicals and the EUYO, supports up-and-coming double bass players.

Christine Hoock plays an English instrument by William Tarr from 1848.

Eugene Levinson

Principal bass, New York Philarmonic, since 1985; soloist for Philharmonic premiere of Tubin's Bass Concerto (1996); bass obbligato for Mozart's aria for bass, double bass, and orchestra, Per questa bella mano, in a Philharmonic performance broadcast on PBS's Live from Lincoln Center (2004). Former principal bass, Minnesota Orchestra and Leningrad Principal Chamber Orchestra. Member, Leningrad Philarmonic, where he was soloist in Koussevitzky's Bass Concerto (1986). Author of School of Agility, a technical method published by Carl Fischer (2002). Winner, Distinguished Special Recognition in Orchestral Performance award from International Society of Bassists (2003). Solo recordings for Pro Arte, Melodiya, and Cala labels. Annual master classes throughout the world. Appearances, Sarasota, Eastern, and Carmel Valley, CA, music festivals. Faculty member, Aspen Music Festival, since 1979. Former faculty, Peabody Conservatory of Music.

Nabil Sehata

Nabil Shehata was born 1980 in Kuweit as a son of German-Egyptoan parents. At the age of four years his family returned to Germany.

As a nine-year-old he loved the electric bass in the closing credits of a sad cartoon. Because he thought the sound came from a double bass, he began learning to play the instrument. After finishing school in 1999 he began studying the bass with Michinori Bunya in Würzburg and then, in 2002, transferred to Esko Laine at Berlin’s Hanns Eisler Hochschule für Musik. During this period he had a scholarship from the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes (German People’s Study Foundation) and the "Young Musicians’ Podium" foundation. In 2003 he was engaged as solo double bass at the Berlin Staatsoper and the next year he moved to take up the same position with the Berliner Philharmoniker. In autumn 2006 Nabil Shehata was awarded the Praetorius Prize of the German state of Lower Saxony. Numerous solo concerts, with such partners as Daniel Barenboim and Thomas Quasthoff and TV recordings with great orchestras have taken him far beyond the borders of Germany. He gives master classes in Japan, Israel and Europe and starting in the winter semester of 2007 will be a professor at Munich’s Hochschule für Musik und Theater. His hobbies are mostly musical in nature, except for one: football.

Roman Patkolo

Roman Patkoló born in 1982 in Zilina, Slovakia. He began studying double bass at the age of 13 and was recognized as a musician of exceptional talent. He has the awards and competition wins to prove it, including first prize at the Slovak National Competition for Double Bass in 1997, winning the International Society of Bassists Competition in 1999, first prize at the 2000 J. M. Sperger International Music Competition, the world’s most prestigious double bass award, where he was also honored with five Special Prizes.

Roman Patkoló has performed internationally as a soloist with the Munich Chamber Orchestra, St. Petersburg Theater Orchestra, the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, among others. He has received high acclaim from musical luminaries such as Krzysztof Penderecki, Sir André Previn, and Zubin Mehta. A scholar of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation since 1999, Patkoló plays a fine vintage double bass by Niccolo Gagliano, acquired for him by the Foundation.

The Circle of Friends of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation is helping to extend the repertoire for double bass by commissioning music from prominent contemporary composers like Wolfgang Rihm, Krzysztof Penderecki, and André Previn, whose Double Concerto for Violin, Double Bass, and Orchestra was premiered in 2007 with Anne-Sophie Mutter, Roman Patkoló and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer himself. The bassist is also a member of the virtuoso bass quartet, Bassiona Amorosa.

The challenges of playing bass are not just artistic ones (an interviewer on German TV pointed out that the notes on a bass are a lot farther apart than on a violin; Roman Patkoló agreed: “It’s true; I cover many kilometers on the neck of my bass.”), but also logistical ones. Traveling on airplanes has become very difficult due to security issues and height restrictions; “that means I sometimes take a smaller instrument on tour.”

“To find a genuine virtuoso who is also a genuine musician is a rare and wonderful thing. Roman Patkoló is both, and on the double bass he can only be compared to a Paganini of our time.” Sir André Previn

Alois Posch

Born in Styria, Austria, in 1959, his musical ambitions first showed at age 10, when he started playing the piano and the violin. Aged 14, he took his first double bass lessons. Just the following year, the College of Music and Representative Arts in Graz, Styria, offered Alois Posch a place to study the double bass. He accepted.

During his studies under professor Johannes Auersperg at the college's exposition in Oberschützen, Burgenland, Alois Posch recorded his first solo radio sessions, won prizes at several competitions as well as an audition for the Vienna State Opera and the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra. The latter earned him an engagement with the Vienna State Opera in 1978. The same year, Alois Posch graduated with honors from Oberschützen. He was only 18.

From 1983 to 2008, Alois Posch performed as solo bassist for the Vienna State Opera and the Vienna Philharmonic. In the late 1980s, he landed a four-year engagement as visiting professor at the Mozarteum Salzburg, the College for Music and Representative Arts in Salzburg, Austria. Since 1993, Alois Posch has taught the double bass at the University of Music and Representative Arts in Vienna.

From the very beginning of his musical career, Alois Posch has played international festivals around the globe. Numerous CD recordings document collaborations with many of the most renowned musicians of recent decades.

Alois Posch plays a Viennese bass by Johann Joseph Stadlmann from 1779.

Gunārs Upatnieks

Gunars Upatnieks was born in 1983 in Jelgava, Latvia into a very musical family. He studied bass at the Music Academy of Latvia in Riga and at the Music Academy L. Janacek in Brno, Czech Republic with Miloslav Jelinek. 2005 - 2009 he was a solo bassist of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra. From 2010 he holds the assistant principal bass position with Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra.

Among his most recent competition successes:

- Musician of the Year 2010/ Radio Classic Latvia

- 1 Prize and Audience Prize at the 58th ARD International Music Competition

- 1 Prize and Audience Prize at the 5th International J.M. Sperger competition for Solo Double Bass players in Ludwigslust (Germany), 2008

- Grand Prix, Special Prize for the best performance and the "Garry Karr Award" at the International Competition for Double Bass in Wrocław (Poland), 2008

- Grand Prix, 1st Prize at the International Competition for Solo Double Bass by the International Society of Bassists in Oklahoma (USA), 2007

- 1 Prize at the 3rd F. Simandl International Competition for solo double bass in Czech Republic, 2008.

Gunars has performed concerts in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Russia, Sweden, Norway, Austria, Germany, Spain, the Czech Republic, Hungary and the USA. He has worked with such orchestras as the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, the Nordic Symphony Orchestra, the Schwerin State Orchestra, the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Munich Chamber Orchestra.

He has played under the direction of Mariss Jansons, Andris Nelsons, Lawrence Renes, Olari Elts, Anu Tali, Mstislav Rastropovich, Mathias Foremmny and many others.

Fora Baltacigil

Fora Baltacigil, scion of an Istanbul family of musicians, learned to play the double bass from his father, principal double bass of the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, who provided him with a basic musical foundation. At the age of 14, he took part in Gary Karr’s masterclasses. Other decisive influences came from Hal Robinson and Edgar Meyer at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied after completing his course at the Istanbul Conservatory and earned his diploma in 2006.

Fora Baltacigil acquired his first orchestral experience as a substitute in the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra. His first permanent engagement as principal bass took him to the Minnesota Orchestra in 2006. In September 2009 he moved to the Berliner Philharmoniker. In 2008 he was a member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble and also took part in major festivals as a soloist and chamber musician. Fora Baltacigil, who compares his instrument to a great ship, enjoys spending his free time sailing, diving and fishing, and he is also an avid cook.

Thierry Barbé

Thierry Barbé is principal bass in the Paris National Opera Orchestra and double bass professor at the National Superior Conservatory of Music in Paris. Born in Metz, eastern France, Barbé studied piano and double bass while simultaneously pursuing a degree in science, before devoting himself exclusively to music at the CNSMDP, where he earned degrees in Harmony, conterpoint, 1st prize music analysis, music history, and a first prize in double bass with JM Rollez. Barbé likes to perform recitals with piano, plays all types of expressive music, with the legendary “French touch”sound and sense of phrasing. He has played and featured in master classes in about 17 countries. He has taught double bass since 1982, notably at the Saint Maur conservatoire, near Paris, where he keeps advanced students from all over the world. He frequently performs his own compositions (his first CD, “Nomade”, was released in 1998). Barbé has experimented with numerous technical approaches to the double bass (left hand positions and bows, regulations…). He likes to concile all of them. Since 2001, Barbé is the French Bass Society president (ABCDF). He is member of the I.S.B. board, and organized an international bass convention in Paris in 2008.

Boguslaw Furtok

Boguslaw Furtok , born in Katowice (Poland), received his first double bass tuition at the age of 9. He later studied the instrument at the Karol Szymanowski Music Academy in his home town, graduating from Prof. Waldemar Tamowski's double bass classes in 1991 with distinction. He completed his postgraduate studies with Prof. Günter Klaus at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt with the Soloists' Diploma.

Boguslaw Furtok has been principal double bass in the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra since 1995. He was awarded many prizes prior to his career as an orchestral musician, including 1st prize at the International Double Bass Competition in Markneukirchen in 1989, 3rd prize at the International Music Competition in Geneva in 1990 and the Menzione Speziale in Parma in 1992.

As a soloist, Boguslaw Furok has made guest appearances with well-known orchestras, including the RSO Warsaw, the RSO Katowice, the Jena Philharmonic, the Tirol Symphony Orchestra Innsbruck, the Bamberg and Hof Symphonies and also in various towns in Poland and Germany. He has also given concerts in the Czech Republic, Italy, France and Switzerland.

In 2000 Furtok produced a CD recording for Classic-Produktion Osnabrück (CPO) of Giovanni Bottesini's double bass concerts with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Stephan Tetzlaff. 2001 saw the issue of two CDs of Sonatas by Brahms, Hindemith and Hertl and diverse transcriptions with the Zuk Records company.

Boguslaw Furtok recorded Stefan Boleslaw Poradowski's Double Bass Concerto of 1929 with the Katowice National Symphony Orchestra for Polish Radio and a further CD with the Double Bass Concerto Lunar Halos by Brian Fennelly.

Boguslaw Furtok combines this with many years of chamber music collaboration with the pianist Ewa Warykiewicz. He plays a Nicola Bergonzi copy double bass by Thomas Martin.

Josef Niederhammer

Josef Niederhammer was born in Linz and studied at the Academy of Music in Vienna with Ludwig Streicher. Even before receiving his diploma exam with distinction, he was a member of the Vienna Volksoper and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. In 1977 he became deputy solo bass of the Bamberger Symphony Orchestra, and in 1978 solo bass of the Bavarian State Orchestra. From 1986 to 1991 he was solo bass of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. Since 1991 he is Professor for double bass at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna .

Bozo Paradzik

Born in Zagreb, began learning doublebass in 1983 with Tihomir Vidovich in Sarajevo. Already before graduating from the Prague Music Academy he was offered his first position as solo double bass player at the Residentie Orchester, Den Haag, in 1991. He later joined the Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart. Bozo Paradzik is first and foremost known for his solo work. At the age of 16 he made his first recordings for the then Yugoslav broadcasting association. Between 1996 and 2001 Paradzik recorded a series of CDs for the SWR. He achieved worldwide fame with his solo CD for the EMI label, the only CD ever to have been recorded with works for solo double bass. As a soloist Bozo Paradzik has appeared with many orchestras and chamber music partners in the musical centres of Germany, Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Poland, the Czech Republic and the entire «ex-Yugoslavia». His artistic achievements have been honoured highly, thus Paradzik is the recipient of the rarely awarded Generation Prize of the Prague Music Academy and «Orlando», a prize conferred by the Croatian Radio and Broadcasting Association for the most outstanding appearance at the international summer festival in Dubrovnik in 2002.

Janne Saksala

Janne Saksala was born in 1967 in Helsinki, Finland. He began music studies on the piano at age seven at the Helsinki School of Music, where he also began studies on the double bass in 1981. In 1986 he continued his studies at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin under Prof. Klaus Stoll. In 1991 he was a prize-winner of the ARD International Music Competition in Munich. Janne Saksala enjoys an international reputation as a chamber musician and a teacher, and has been engaged as a tutor at many reputable music institutions (e.g. Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Manhattan School of Music). He has made many radio productions, and has performed as a soloist internationally. He works regularly together with composers, and has premiered many new compositions. He is professor in the Carl-Flesch-Academy Baden-Baden since 2006 and will be one in the Musikhochschule Hanns-Eisler Berlin from 2009 on. He has been a member of the Berlin Philharmonic since 1994 and it’s first solo-bass since autumn 2008.

Duncan Mctier

Since winning the 1982 Isle of Man International Double Bass Competition, Duncan McTier has established a reputation as one of the world's leading double bass soloists. He has appeared as soloist all over the world and made more than fifty recordings for radio, TV and record companies. He obtained a mathematics degree at Bristol University before joining the BBC Symphony Orchestra. After seven years as principal bass of the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra he returned to England to concentrate on a career as soloist, chamber musician and pedagogue. He has collaborated with many of the world's most distinguished string quartets, and artists such as Joshua Bell, Steven Isserlis, Nobuko Imai and Heinrich Schiff. Composers who have written works especially for him include Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Gavin Bryars, Robin Holloway and John Casken. Duncan McTier is Professor of Double Bass at the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste in Winterthur and the Reina Sofia School in Madrid.

Giovanni Bottesini

Born in Crema, Lombardy, he was taught the rudiments of music by his father, an accomplished clarinetist and composer, at a young age and had played timpani in Crema with the Teatro Sociale before the age of eleven. He studied violin with Carlo Cogliati, and would have most likely continued on this instrument except for a unique turn of events. His father sought a place for him in the Milan Conservatory, but due to the Bottesini family's lack of money, Bottesini needed a scholarship. Only two positions were available: double bass and bassoon. He prepared a successful audition for the double bass scholarship in a matter of weeks. At the conservatory, he studied with Luigi Rossi, to whom he would later dedicate his Tre grandi duetti per contrabasso. Only four years later, a surprisingly short time by the standards of the day, he left with a prize of 300 francs for solo playing. This money financed the acquisition of an instrument of Carlo Antonio Testore, and a globe-trotting career as "The Paganini of the Double Bass" was launched. On leaving Milan he spent some time in America and also occupied the position of principal double-bass in the theatre at Havana. Here his first opera, Cristoforo Colombo, was produced in 1847.

In 1849 he made his first appearance in England, playing double bass solos at one of the Musical Union concerts. After this he made frequent visits to England, and his extraordinary command of his unwieldy instrument gained him great popularity in London and the provinces. Apart from his triumphs as a performer, Bottesini was a conductor of European reputation, and was conductor at the Théâtre des Italiens in Paris from 1855 to 1857 where his second opera, L'Assedio di Firenze, was produced in 1856. Bottesini was a free-mason, initiated June 20, 1849 in the Bank of England Lodge No. 263, London.

When conducting opera, Bottesini would frequently bring his double bass on stage during the intermission to play fantasies on the evening's opera. His Fantasies on Lucia di Lammermoor, I Puritani and Beatrice di Tenda are virtuosic tours de force that are still popular with those who are highly accomplished on the instrument.

In 1861 and 1862 he conducted in Palermo, supervising the production of his opera Marion Delorme in 1862, and in 1863 in Barcelona. During these years he diversified the toils of conducting by repeated concert tours through Europe. In 1871 he conducted a season of Italian opera at the Lyceum theatre in London, during which his opera Ali Babà was produced, and he was chosen by Verdi to conduct the first performance of Aida, which took place at Cairo on 27 December 1871.

Bottesini wrote three operas besides those previously mentioned: Il Diavolo della Notte (Milan, 1859); Vinciguerra (Paris, 1870); and Ero e Leandro (Turin, 1880), the last named to a libretto by Arrigo Boito, which was subsequently set by Luigi Mancinelli. He also wrote The Garden of Olivet, a devotional oratorio (libretto by Joseph Bennett), which was produced at the Norwich festival in 1887, eleven string quartets, a quintet for string quartet and double bass, and many works for the double bass, including two concertos for solo double-bass, the Gran Duo Concertnate (originally) for two double basses, Passione Amorosa for two double basses, and numerous pieces for double bass and piano.

Shortly before his death, in 1888 he was appointed director of Parma Conservatory on Verdi's recommendation. Bottesini died in Parma on the 7th of July 1889. His solo works remain standard repertoire for accomplished double bassists to this day.

The Paganini of the Double Bass

Bottesini was widely acclaimed, and his virtuosic skill in the bass paralleled that of Paganini himself on the violin. Because of the contributions of Bottesini (along with those of Sperger and Dragonetti) to bass technique, many have come to view the double bass as a diverse and versatile instrument. Most notably there are many virtuoso bass players who draw inspiration from the early renaissance of the double bass.

Bottesini's bass was said to be a unique instrument with a remarkable sound. It was built by Carlo Antonio Testore in 1716. The instrument was owned by several unknown bass players. It nearly met its end in the 1830s as it sat backstage in a marionette theater in Milan. Bottesini purchased the Testore in 1838 for 900 lire. The Testore bass was later converted back to a four-stringed instrument, and then to a three. Eventually, it was changed back to a four-string configuration and is now in the possession of a private collector in Japan. Bottesini was also one of the first performers to adopt the French-style bow grip for the double bass. This style was previously used solely by violinists and violists. Now, the style is as common as the German-style bow grip.

Joel Quarrington

Joel Quarrington was born in Toronto, and began playing the double bass at the age of eleven in order to complete a bluegrass trio with his brothers, Paul Quarrington and Tony Quarrington. At the age of thirteen, he began to study with Thomas Monohan, who was at the time the principal bassist of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He also studied under Peter Madgett, who is still a member of the TSO. After he received a degree in music from the University of Toronto, he went on to Austria and Italy to study under two renowned double bass pedagogues, respectively Ludwig Streicher and Franco Petracchi

Quarrington has won numerous music competitions, including first prize in the CBC talent festival in 1976, and second prize in the Geneva International Competition in 1978 (first prize was not awarded that year). He played as principal bass with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra between 1979 and 1988, and the Canadian Opera Company between 1989 and 1991, and then proceeded to become principal bass of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Since September 2006, he has been the Principal Bass of the National Arts Centre Orchestra. Quarrington has played concerti with many North American orchestras, including the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the TSO and the NACO with Pinchas Zukerman. In April 2006, he played the world premiere of John Harbison's double bass concerto, which was commissioned by the International Society of Bassists

Quarrington plays on a 1630 Giovanni Paolo Maggini double bass, and is well known for his unusual practice of tunning his bass in intervals of fifths, like a cello, but an octave lower.

He has made three solo recordings, one, on CBC Records, containing a wide variety of pieces for the solo double bass with orchestra, and two others, on Naxos Records. The first Naxos release contains works for double bass and piano by Giovanni Bottesini. The second disc, also featuring the music of Bottesini, was released in 2008. For that recording Quarrington collaborated with such artists as clarinetist Jim Campbell, soprano Monica Whicher, and American bassist Hal Robinson, principal bassist of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Joel Quarrington teaches at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University in Montreal.