About the University of Maryland
The University of Maryland School of Music is housed in a state of the art facility - The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Completed in 2000, it put the school "on the map" among U.S. music schools. Dekelboum Concert Hall, with its 1,100 seats and impressive layout, was designed in consultation with Kirkegaard & Associates, one of the world's leading acoustic architecture firms.
The UMD School of Music "combines first-rate academics and conservatory-caliber training in a comprehensive, mid-size program". Learn more by visiting their website at http://www.music.umd.edu/about_us/
Scholarships are available for undergraduate and graduate students. Also, graduate assistantships available.
About My Philosophy
My main goal in bass pedagogy is, ultimately, to teach students to teach themselves. You can only become an accomplished musician if you can analyze your own playing, envision musical ideas, and develop your own technical solutions. I guide the process along, offering instruction and advice based on years of high-level professional experience.
I believe in a practical approach to preparing for a career as a classical bassist. This means that the orchestral repertoire and techniques must be learned. Executing the orchestral parts successfully requires knowledge of musical styles and mastery of the bowing techniques they impose. At auditions, they must be performed with conviction and musicality, and an energy that projects them as standalone pieces of music.
Solo playing is certainly important - I've performed solos with orchestra nine times. You can't be a musician without a sense of self expression, your own "voice". But losing yourself in the solo repertoire while forsaking the orchestral parts could lead to poverty. In other words, you can't "live and die" by the Bach Cello Suites, wonderful as they are.
About Me
Here's Chapter I:
My parents were accomplished musicians who met at the Eastman School of Music. When I was fifteen they brought home a bass asking if I would like to try it. I had never paid attention to the bass, even though I had been to many orchestra concerts that my father had conducted. I agreed to a month of trial lessons if they would subsidize my interest in golf. Surprisingly, I loved the bass from the start and never really got around to playing golf that summer. I immediately practiced two hours a day and played along with recordings of the Haydn symphonies.
I attended North Carolina School of the Arts for one year of high school and three years of college. (I never auditioned for any other colleges.) It actually was a great situation at NCSA, with a resident faculty who were always available and an environment that beckoned the artist within each of us. I also spent many summers at music camps like Brevard and Tanglewood, where I had the chance to be associated with some of the best bass students in the country. From my group at Tanglewood, two are now in the Boston Symphony, two in the San Francisco Symphony, one went to the Cleveland Orchestra and is now Principal in Houston, one was Principal in Hong Kong, and one flourished in Scandinavia.
My first professional audition (at the age of 20) was for Assistant Principal Bass of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. My mother thought I was crazy, but I knew that I needed all of the audition experience I could get. To my surprise, I made the semi-finals! My next audition was for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. I made the finals along with one other guy, but after a long wait, the personnel manager informed us they weren't hiring either of us. Next, I applied to the National Symphony Orchestra, but my resumé was initially rejected. (I think they had already held auditions for the position and were narrowing the pool.) I sent letters of recommendations in my defense and they agreed to let me come. At the end of two days of auditions, I was the lucky recipient of a job with the NSO and a sandpaper kiss from Mistislav Rostropovich. (Yuck!)
You'll have to come to the University of Maryland to get the rest of the story!
