Chicago Bass Ensemble

Why a Bass Ensemble?

Every musician who aspires to a career with a symphony orchestra has experienced their share of setbacks: lousy auditions, lousy orchestras, driving all night just to get to a job. And bassists especially get sick of doing all that just to sit at the edge of the orchestra and watch the conductor crack jokes with his pals up in the first chairs of the violin, viola and cello sections. Jacque Harper got to that point, and realized that if he really wanted to contribute something musically to the world, he was going to have to do it some other way.

That’s the impetus that got this group going. Well, part of it, anyway.

There’s a wealth of recently-composed music for groups of bass players, it’s a really cool instrument that most people think of as solely a support instrument, but which can be very expressive.

You, the visitor to this site, have in all likelihood, not heard too many double bass concerts. Now’s your chance to change that! First, see if we’ve got anything listed on our performances page to see what’s shaking. Next, think about places you’ve been where a bass ensemble (might be any size from a duo or trio on up) would be well-received, and tell us about it. Hey, who knows, when we start making t-shirts with our logo on it, we might give you one!

About This Website

With such a plain-jane, black and white (and gray, be fair!) website, you’d hardly believe that the guy who built it has a day job in web development. But it’s true. We look at it this way: Jacque could spend all his time and energy making a snazzy website with colorful pictures and icons, interactive back-end features like a visitor log and an online calendar, and visitor personalization features, not to mention downloadable mp3 clips and stuff, or he could practice, and get music together for our rehearsals. Which one makes for a better performing group? We thought you’d agree.