I don't know if this is the right forum, but I just wanted to report back on the Bass2010 conference in Berlin. I performed the Susskind play THE DOUBLE BASS there, but the emphasis - naturally - was on some world class masterclasses, recitals and concerts: Rufus Reid, Paul Ellison, Catalin Rotaru, Edicson Ruiz, Klaus Stoll, Tom Martin, Volkan Orhan, Kristin Korb,etc.
The conference itself was pretty chaotic, but maybe that's the nature of these things. There were a lot of basses and bows to try in the exhibition area: the "big guns" such as Grunert, Stoll, Pollman, Vektor, Hoyer, Dolling, our own Lynn Seaton, etc;
Tom and George Martin were kind enough to loan me one of their new "Concert" basses and a George Marchand bow for the show. The Concert is their conservatory level bass which I think sells in the US for under $10K and the Marchand bow was equally terrific (it's their in house brand, I think).
There were some interesting young makers there: Michael Donatin had an an excellent 5-string bass that I heard Janne Saksala play; travel basses (detachable necks or small amplified ones) seem to be in vogue. Both Bruno Brette of ParisContrabass and Patrick Charton (also Paris) had interesting models. An interesting company call Diastrad makes very good sounding copies of antique basses with really convincing worn finishes. He says he lets his grandkids scratch up the bass in the white before he varnishes them... He said he didn't have the nerve to do it himself... Who knows...
Anyway, my hunch is that there was more looking than buying. Donatin's 5-string bass was 18K Euros, which is over $30K US - and there are a lot of great basses around for that money.
Still the atmosphere and cameraderie were terrific - lot's of great players... and me, pretending to be one on stage!!
More info here:
http://bass2010.com/
Photos from the performance attached.
Louis
