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Double Bass Grad School Teachers

C

Cory Palmer

Apr 3, 2006
539
67
Rochester, NY
#1
I am going to be auditioning for grad schools again this year and am wondering if anybody can give me some more information about some teachers? I am going to graduate from the Master's degree program at Peabody this year and am going to audition for certificate/diploma programs or maybe even another master's program.

Right now I am definitely auditioning for the Graduate Performance Diploma program at Peabody where I would continue studying with John Hood and the Orchestral Performance Degree program at the Manhattan School of Music where I'd study with either Orin O'Brien or David Grossman, they are both amazing teachers. I am also thinking about Yale with Don Palma, NEC with Palma or Todd Seeber, BU with Ed Barker, Jeff Turner in Pittsburgh, or maybe someone in Chicago like Rob Kassinger.

I have had lessons with Orin O'Brien and David Grossman and I know some people in NYC so I have a good idea of what they are like as teachers. I don't know much about any of the other teachers except that they are all great. So could you give me more specific information about any of them (teaching style, playing style, etc.)? Also could anybody tell me more about the Chicago teachers and schools? Is Rob Kassinger the man to study with there and is Depaul the better school?

Hopefully I will be able to get lessons from some of these guys before the audition process starts. I have a friend that just started at Yale so I will get more info about Palma and the program there as the year progesses.
 
#4
You should check out CCM. Here there are a lot of grad students and Mr. Laszlo is a great teacher. He takes a very zen-like style to bass I guess you can say.

He is all about everything being natural. So the natural sounds, the bass naturally vibrating and does a lot of bow work and knocks out great left hand work.

I'm a German bow student of his and couldn't be any happier. CCM is a great program. The orchestras are great, and between studio class and rep class, if you put your time in I cant imagine anybody not being ready for a professional.
 
#5
I realized that there are a few other teachers and schools I should list. Rice - Tim Pitts and Paul Ellison, Colburn - David Alan Moore and Paul Ellison, and USC - Dennis Trembly.

I'm not sure if I will audition at any of these schools because they are so far away. Paul Ellison came to Peabody and gave a masterclass last year. I didn't get to play for him but it was a great masterclass. I'm not sure if I'd want to study with him over Tim Pitts though. I don't really know what Tim Pitts is like as a teacher. I know he was in the Cleveland Orchestra before he won the prinicpal job in Houston. From what I hear about David Alan Moore he sounds like he's similar to David Grossman. Fairly young but great teachers for auditions since they won auditions not too long ago. I saw Dennis Trembly at the last ISB convention and was extremely impressed with his playing. Definitely one of the best musicians I've seen. I've been told that he is the guy to study with on the west coast but I haven't talked to anybody that has studied with him.

I just looked at the Colburn website and the school sounds very impressive. One person described it to me as the Curtis of the west coast. It looks like a better deal than Curtis though. If you get in. There is no age limit and there is a graduate program. They also pay for your housing and give you a food allowance. It sounds like and amazing place but they don't have regional auditions so I would have to go all the way to LA to audition. It would be cool to get to visit LA even if I ended up not going there. Invalid Link Removed
 
#7
I'm familiar with Tim Cobb. Great teacher and a monster player. If I go to NYC I'd rather study with Orin or David. My main concern about studying with Tim would be his schedule. He is the busiest musician I know of. I hear that a lot of his lessons end up not lasting a full hour and sometimes you won't get a lesson for a few weeks. I'm sure if I end up in NYC I'll try to get a lesson with him every once and a while.

For the most part I know the teachers I want to be studying with and am wanting to get more information about them.
 
#8
Grossman is an amazing teacher. I've played for him in two masterclasses and they were top notch. His German bow technique is taken exclusively from Levinson with a tiny bit from O'brien and his left hand technique is a mixture of Levinson and O'brien. He is a phenomenal teacher,very easy to understand, well spoken, and very motivational. All in all I'd say he is THE teacher to study with at MSM (IMO).
 
#9
Mr. Cobb certainly is an incredibly busy guy. The thing about studying with him, is that you learn from him just by being exposed to him. He's remarkable. It is true, however, that he sometimes can't give you a lesson every week. He does put himself out there for you if you really need his help on something (for example, during and leading up to jury week).

If you go to Boston, definitely check out Todd Seeber, Ed Barker, and Larry Wolfe. All of them are amazing teachers and players. I've studied with all of them during the summers at different times, and they're really excellent. I've done the most work with Todd though, and he's really fantastic. He really makes sure you get the most out of your lessons and has incredible insight into playing. He also keeps an eye out for any bad habit that you might have that could cause you injury in the future and helps you fix that right away.
 
#10
You should look into the DMA program at Juilliard. It's very hard to get into, but it's free for all students enrolled. If you're looking to really refine your playing for auditions I would recommend studying with O'Brien or Levinson. I've heard the orchestral performance program at MSM is good, but unfortunately MSM doesn't give out much money to anyone and I think that only Cobb and O'Brien are the teachers in the program so you might have to do the masters program to study with Grossman.

sibass89 said:
His German bow technique is taken exclusively from Levinson with a tiny bit from O'brien
Click to expand...

Could you elaborate on this?
 
#11
What about IU....Corey I know your a german bow player and you can only look at the numbers of audition winners and where they come from. IU has almost 40% of the audition winners. And hey if you have had all of this education MSM/Peabody so you most likely dont' need any more technique work. I would really say that B. Bransby would be great for you. He is a great excerpt coach and will help you get a job. I would say the PD program would def. put you on the path to getting a job.......the numbers don't lie

B. Jensen won National Arts Center/Detroit/ and was the only person to pass a round in Toronto

Jeff Kail won KC Symphony/ runner up Detroit and San Diego

Tom McGary won Calgary Phil and Principal of Kitchner Waterloo in the same week

and BB has had several other students do pretty well in auditions in the past
 
#12
Does IU have any kind of certificate or professional studies program?

My main concern about going to IU would be that it is kind of in the middle of nowhere. I'm wanting to be near some great orchestras and where there are many great teachers around so that I don't have to travel very far to get a lesson with someone other than my primary teacher. I know IU would be a great place to study though.
 
#14
p.nemeth said:
You should look into the DMA program at Juilliard. It's very hard to get into, but it's free for all students enrolled. If you're looking to really refine your playing for auditions I would recommend studying with O'Brien or Levinson. I've heard the orchestral performance program at MSM is good, but unfortunately MSM doesn't give out much money to anyone and I think that only Cobb and O'Brien are the teachers in the program so you might have to do the masters program to study with Grossman.



Could you elaborate on this?
Click to expand...

Hey PNemeth -

In my lessons with Grossman and the few masterclasses (I have studied with Levinson and have some one and one bass encounters with Ms. O'brien) I find that Grossman took this Levinson principle of pad of the thumb completely on the stick. He also took the thumb, 1st, and 2nd finger principle from him about articulation and pinching the string. He didn't talk much about the pinky on the bow, which in my experience is the big thing in O'briens bow technique. You study with Ms. Obrien so I would like to know if my couple of encounters and help from her is true compared to in the studio.
 
#16
sibass89 said:
Hey PNemeth -

In my lessons with Grossman and the few masterclasses (I have studied with Levinson and have some one and one bass encounters with Ms. O'brien) I find that Grossman took this Levinson principle of pad of the thumb completely on the stick. He also took the thumb, 1st, and 2nd finger principle from him about articulation and pinching the string. He didn't talk much about the pinky on the bow, which in my experience is the big thing in O'briens bow technique. You study with Ms. Obrien so I would like to know if my couple of encounters and help from her is true compared to in the studio.
Click to expand...

Ah, I see what you mean now. I'm not too familiar with how Levinson holds the bow other than how I see his students hold it with the third and fourth finger under the bottom of the frog and the bow at an angle so the wrist is straight. Orin has the first and second fingers flat against the side of the stick with the thumb flat on the top with some curve. The third finger does nothing and just kind of hangs out floating next to the second and the fourth finger is underneath the frog. Spiccatto and a lot of articulations come from a sort of pinching of the thumb and the fourth finger against the frog. When I saw David Grossman's recital at MSM his huge hands covered up everything so I couldn't see too well what he was doing with his right hand.
 
#18
EFischer1 said:
I would lay off of statements like this, buddy. Anyone who reaches that level of artistry deserves more than being called a hybrid of his section-mates.
Click to expand...

Don't misinterpret statements like that as an insult.
Statements like that aren't referring to artistry. They are referring to technique. David Grossman wasn't just magically able to play with a German bow the way he does. His main sources for technique were Levinson and O'Brien. He's at the point where he is definitely his own artist but there is a strong influence from his teachers.

Everybody is heavily influenced by their teachers. After you haven't been studying with David for a few years look back and see how much he influenced the way you play the bass. A large part of his teaching will stick with you and it will be recognizable for the rest of your career. Especially something like bow technique.
 
#19
EFischer1 said:
I would lay off of statements like this, buddy. Anyone who reaches that level of artistry deserves more than being called a hybrid of his section-mates.
Click to expand...

I was not implying that Mr. Grossman wasn't his own artist or his own player. But the forum is asking about teaching styles and these are three teachers that I have experience with. Mr. Grossman studied with Mr. Levinson and Ms. O'brien and I was saying from my experience with all three, that is where his German bow technique is derived from. Sorry to insult you or your teacher but I highly doubt that Mr. Grossman would find that statement insulting with the high level of respect he always talks about Mr. Levinson and Ms. O'brien with.
 
#20
It should be mentioned that beginning this year you can study with both Max Dimoff and Jeff Bradetich at the same time at CIM. I personally studied with Jeff before moving on to Ed Barker @ BU. However, if you've never had the opportunity to work with either of those fabulous teachers, here's an AMAZING opportunity to get both!
 

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