Peabody Bass Works

We look forward to welcoming you to Baltimore for Peabody Bass Works, a new one-week summer program for bassists of all ages. Peabody Bass Works was designed to provide unique learning, community, and performance opportunities.

Since relocating a successful program launched in July 2011, we are able to take advantage of the Peabody Conservatory's outstanding facilities and offer an expanded program of lessons, ensembles, and supervised practice sessions.

Bassists from ages 8 to 18 at any ability level are eligible for the Young Bassists Division, which will take place as a day program from July 10-13, 2013.

The Collegiate Division, which will take place July 7-13, 2013, is a residential program, open to bass students who have completed one or more years of college study on the bass.

The Peabody Bass Works Collegiate Division will select six elite bass students, 18 years of age or older, for a seven day intensive program of study, lessons, practice, master classes, and performance. The participants will work on a daily basis with the entire Peabody Conservatory bass faculty, as well as with our guest faculty artists, San Diego Symphony Principal Bass Jeremy Kurtz-Harris and noted pedagogue and bassist Tracy Rowell.

Collegiate Division participants will receive a scholarship tuition waiver covering tuition and rooming for the week. Students will be responsible for their own transportation to and from Peabody, and meals for the duration of their stay.  A $170 meal plan covering breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the duration of the program is available.

Sample Schedule (subject to change)

Classes and Activities

• Daily Individual Lessons with Faculty
• Master Classes
• Orchestra Excerpt Preparation and Mock Audition
• Recital
• Faculty and Student Recitals
• Bass Ensembles
• Opportunities to Explore Baltimore with the Group

The Peabody Bass Works Young Bassists Division, held each day from July 10-13, 2013, is designed to provide unique learning opportunities to bass players with at least one year of bass study. The program will offer an expanded program of lessons and supervised practice sessions that will culminate on the final afternoon with a thrilling concert that will feature all participants.

A typical Young Bassists Division day will feature small group lessons, small ensemble lessons, supervised practice, and large ensemble lessons. Classes are organized to fit each student's age and ability level, whether they are in elementary, middle, or high school. In addition to the opportunity for camaraderie during the lessons, participants will also have time to socialize during breaks and lunch time - as well as the opportunity to hear mini-recitals by faculty and students. Young Bassists will work on a daily basis with the entire Peabody Conservatory bass faculty, as well as with our guest faculty artists Jeremy Kurtz-Harris and Tracy Rowell and other prominent teachers.

Sample Schedule (subject to change)

Activities

• Semi-Private Lessons
•  Bass Ensembles
•  Movement and Rhythm classes
•  Technique demonstration
•  Improvisation
•  Interaction with Collegiate Division participants
•  Daytime and Evening Recitals
•  Social time and fun with fellow students

Peabody Bass Works Faculty

Ira Gold attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, then earned his Bachelor of Music degree at Boston University's College of Fine Arts. His Master of Music degree is from Rice University's Shepherd School of Music, where he won the strings division of the 2005 Concerto Competition. His primary teachers include Edwin Barker and Paul Ellison. He has been with the National Symphony Orchestra since 2005, also teaching in the NSO's Youth Fellowship program. Gold participated in the Domaine Forget Music Academy, Bach Festival Leipzig, Aspen Music Festival, and Tanglewood Music Center, where he was a recipient of the Maurice Schwartz Prize. He also spent several summers at the International Festival Institute at Round Top both as a student and as a faculty member. Gold has been teaching at Peabody Conservatory since 2009.

Paul Johnson earned his Bachelor of Music degree from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., and his Master of Music degree from the Peabody Conservatory. A faculty member at Peabody, he formerly was a faculty member at Towson University, Goucher College, and Baltimore School for the Arts. In 1999, Johnson was the recipient of the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association Excellence in Teaching Award. He has served as principal bass for the Baltimore Opera Company, Concert Artists of Baltimore, the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, and the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra. His major teachers include Eugene Levinson and Harold Robinson.

Jeffrey Weisner has been a member of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., since 1995. He also performed with the San Francisco Symphony for their entire 2003-2004 season. From 1995 to 2007, he was the bassist of the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra. In 2007, Weisner commissioned and premiered a major new solo work by internationally renowned composer Michael Hersch. This work, Caelum Dedecoratum, was performed on solo recitals at Peabody and at New York's Merkin Recital Hall. Other recent commissions include new works for bass by composers Armando Bayolo and David Smooke. A native of Los Angeles, Weisner attended Boston University, where he studied with Lawrence Wolfe and Ed Barker. He later studied under Harold Robinson at Peabody, where he received his Master of Music degree. Weisner joined the Peabody Conservatory faculty in 2005.

Jeremy Kurtz-Harris, winner of the 1997 International Society of Bassists solo competition, among others, has been the principal bass of the San Diego Symphony since 2004. He performed Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Harbison's bass concerto with the San Diego Symphony in March 2007, as one of 15 bassists participating in the coast-to-coast premiere. A graduate of the Curtis Institute and Rice University, where his main teachers were Harold Robinson and Timothy Pitts, respectively, Kurtz-Harris has also studied with such artists as jazz bassist John Clayton and classical/bluegrass bassist-extraordinaire Edgar Meyer. Kurtz-Harris is on the Board of Directors of the International Society of Bassists and on the music faculty at San Diego State University and Idyllwild Arts Academy. His first solo CD, Sonatas and Meditations, was released in 2008 in partnership with Houston Classical Radio, KUHF.

Tracy Rowell teaches at the University of Akron and for the Sato Center for Suzuki Studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music. She was recently appointed to the double bass faculty at Oberlin College and will begin teaching there in Fall 2012.  She has been a guest clinician and recitalist at bass workshops such as George Vance's Summer Bass Workshop and the Kansas City Bass Workshop. Formerly assistant principal bass of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Rowell currently serves as principal bass for Citymusic Cleveland. As a chamber musician, Rowell has collaborated with musicians from the Cavani, St. Lawrence, Pacifica, and Parker string quartets. She received fellowships from the Aspen Music Festival, the Tanglewood Music Center, and the Sir George Solti Orchestral Project at Carnegie Hall. Rowell studied with Paul Ellison at Rice University and received her master's degree from Boston University, as a student of Edwin Barker.