We recently had the chance to sit down with UT Double Bass Professor Joel Braun! Joel is kicking off a new series of featured artists on TalkBass. We are thrilled to present his interview, a Q&A forum with Joel, as well as feature his multitude of recordings.
00:07 Introduction to Joel Braun
00:30 Early Musical Beginnings
01:42 Discovering the Bass Guitar
02:50 Transition to Upright Bass
05:38 Studying with Eugene Levinson
06:28 Life in New York and Juilliard
12:20 Orchestral Experience and Career
15:54 Teaching Philosophy and Audition Preparation
18:27 Overcoming Audition Anxiety
19:09 Developing Musicianship and Confidence
22:27 The Importance of Reliability in Music
24:12 Exploring Diverse Musical Experiences
26:24 Recording and Composing During the Pandemic
26:56 Discovering and Promoting Bass Repertoire
35:55 Future Projects and Reflections
Joel Braun is Associate Professor of Double Bass at the University of Texas at Austin. As an orchestral musician he has performed with many of the world's leading orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and the New York City Ballet Orchestra. He participated in over a dozen national and international tours with the New York Philharmonic, including the Philharmonic's historic trip to North Korea in 2008 under the direction of Lorin Maazel. He has performed under eminent conductors such as Kurt Masur, Jaap van Zweden, Gustavo Dudamel, Riccardo Muti, Herbert Blomstedt, Christoph von Dohnányi, Zubin Mehta, and Paavo Järvi, among many others. He is a former member of the Ft. Wayne Philharmonic and currently serves as faculty and assistant principal bass of the Eastern Festival of Music under the direction of Gerard Schwarz.
As a soloist and chamber musician, Joel has concertized at major universities, conservatories, and music festivals throughout the United States. As a chamber musician he has collaborated with Anton Nel, Awadagin Pratt, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, the Miro String Quartet, the Olmos Ensemble, the American Piano Trio and members of prominent American orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, the Washington National Opera Orchestra, and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, among others. As a soloist he has recently performed concertos in Paraguay with the Symphonic Orchestra of the National Congress of Paraguay and in Mexico with the Camerata Festival Contra Redes. Recent recital appearances include performances in Heidelberg Germany, Puebla Mexico, the University of Louisville, and the International Society of Bassists Biennial Convention.
As an in-demand pedagogue, Joel has presented master classes internationally in Germany, Mexico, Paraguay, and Perú. Domestically he has presented masterclasses at The Juilliard School, the Boston Conservatory, Northwestern University, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Iowa, the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Michigan State University, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the Interlochen Center for the Arts, among many others. He has held prior faculty positions at Ball State University, The Juilliard School Pre-College Division, and New York City's Special Music School at the Kaufman Center. He has given conference presentations and written articles for the International Society of Bassists (ISB) and the American String Teacher's Association and has served on the editorial committee for American String Teacher Magazine and the board of directors for the ISB. During the summer he serves on the faculty of the Eastern Festival of Music in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Joel's former students have won positions in the Metropolitan Opera, the San Francisco Symphony, China's National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, the Hawai'i Symphony Orchestra, the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra, and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.
Joel began playing double bass in St. Louis, Missouri studying with Sue Stubbs. He moved to New York City to study with Eugene Levinson at The Juilliard School where he earned a Pre-College Diploma, B.M., and M.M. degrees.
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