Bass Education

MacDaddy · #1 11-19-2002, 10:50 PM

Hey I'm a senior in high school looking at colleges to attend for Bass Performance. My only many thing is it has to be a big university. A fine example of this would be University of Maryland. No small conservatories or schools of music. Odd, I know, but alas. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks!

MacKay Olson

MacMcBass · #2 11-20-2002, 12:07 AM

MacDaddy - I don't think you could get much bigger than the University of Texas in Austin, TX. You can check out the UT Bass Lab web site at http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~neubert/.
Dr. Neubert is an incredible teacher, John Fremgen is awesome.
I visited the University of North Texas in Denton a few weeks back. I liked the smaller campus. UNT has two renowned double bass teachers Jeff Bradetich & Lynn Seaton. Both are beyond incredible. Mr. Bradetich is known as one of the world's leading performers and teachers of the double bass.
But if you want a big campus and a cool city then you should check out UT Austin. Plus, Austin is the Live Music Capitol of the World!

anonymous0726 · #3 11-20-2002, 12:25 AM

Classical or jazz?

Either way -- come to New York. Might as well get here ASAP. After, we are the center of the known musical universe

MacDaddy · #4 11-20-2002, 09:57 AM

I always seem to forget to mention I'm pure Classical. I dig funk/jazz and what not but never had time to get in to playing it, classical's hard enough.
Ya I've heard of UNT, in fact, I went to the Hammond Ashley bass camp a few years back and Jeff Bradetich was the teacher dude there. Great guy and an amazing musician. Although I absolutely hate hot weather, I'll totally look into it.
I'd totally love to go East Coast though. Get as far away from the fam. as possible, so NY is certainly an option.

Don Higdon · #5 11-20-2002, 10:25 AM

Indiana.
Respected music department.
Very good double bass department.
Excellent track record placing bassists in orchestras.

Manhattan School of Music may have the best record of all placing graduates in orchestras, but it's not "a big university." All they have is a truly awesome bass faculty.

JAS · #6 11-20-2002, 04:07 PM

RUTGERS UNIVERSITY in New Brunswick, NJ.

Rutgers is about 30 min from New York and is a great school for classical and jazz. I just graduated in May. The classical bass teacher is Paul Harris who is the principal bassist in the New Jersey Symphony. He is an amazing teacher and player. Mike Richmond is the jazz bass teacher. i studied with him. He is amazing also. I studied jazz and some classical with Mike. Rutgers also has a great orchestra. I would without a doubt check out this school. The rest of their facculty is great too.

MacDaddy · #7 11-21-2002, 06:11 PM

Sent an e-mail out to Mr. Hurst of Indiana. Seems like a really cool guy although I'm kind of disappointed he plays french bow. But hey, nobodies perfect.

What's your opinion on University of Northern Colorado? My orchestra teacher's son goes there and he recommended them to me. The Professor's name is James Vaughn. Seems like a really cool guy. Know anything about him?