Saturday, May 16, 2009
We performed at the People’s Music School’s “Music for Peace” Festival in St. James Cathedral.
John Floeter, Doug Johnson, Jacque Harper and Pat Romane.
“Music for Peace” Festival, May 16, 2009
May 2nd, 2010Lutheran School of Theology, March 29, 2009
May 2nd, 2010Sunday, March 29, 2009
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
1100 East 55th Street, Chicago
- Doug Johnson, The Open Sea
- Teppo Hauta-Aho, Koraaliaana Miniature
- Paul Hindemith, Six Chansons
- Seth Boustead, Sawtooth Hammer
- Jan Alm, Quartet #2
Center Portion, March 25, 2009
May 2nd, 2010March 25, 2009, 7:30 pm
Center Portion
2850 1/2 Fullerton Ave., Chicago.
- Doug Johnson, The Open Sea
- Jan Alm, Quartet #2
- Seth Boustead, Sawtooth Hammer
- Paul Hindemith, Six Chansons
- Teppo Hauta-Aho, Koraaliaana Miniature
- David Anderson, Quartet 1987
Heaven Gallery, December 15, 2008
May 2nd, 2010On a chilly December evening, we played at Heaven Gallery, 1550 N. Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago.
Chicago Bass Ensemble at Heaven Gallery
(photo courtesy of A Guy In Arlington Heights, Illinois. )
Elastic Arts Foundation, June 20, 2008
May 2nd, 2010June 20, 2008
We played a short set as a trio at the Elastic Arts Foundation’s performance space.
John Floeter, Jacque Harper and Doug Johnson played works by Alm and Kesselman.
NIU – February 14, 2008
May 2nd, 2010February 14, 2008
We were the featured artists at Northern Illinois University’s morning convocation.
Here’s how John Floeter described it on his blog:
The Chicago Bass Ensemble will be performing in DeKalb at Northern Illinois University as the featured artists for the All-School Convocation at 11am on February 14th,2008. This will essentially be a 50 minute concert with a minimal amount of lecture. Although it is a required class for NIU music students, it is also open to the public. I would like to invite anyone who is interested in hearing the unique sonority of 4 double basses to attend.
Bassists Jacque Harper, Michael Hovnanian, and Doug Johnson will join me, John Floeter, in works specifically written for 4 Double Basses by Jan Alm, Seth Boustead, Doug Johnson and Teppo Hauta-aho. We will also present transcriptions of choral works by Hindemith and Orlando di Lasso .
The concert will take place in the Concert Hall of the Music Building, which is located on the northeast corner of campus on Lucinda Ave, between Gilbert Way and the Kishwaukee River. There are some parking meters available near the corner of Gilbert and Lucinda, otherwise you must purchase a permit and park in the parking structure a few blocks from the music department.
Helpful Links:
http://www.niu.edu/visit/parking.shtml
Today’s Focus: Content
May 2nd, 2010
So as you can see today, I haven’t yet licked the make-it-look-like-the-custom-design problem yet. And what with other priorities and events in life, that hasn’t been a top priority and won’t be for a while.
Instead, today’s focus will be, for a few hours, on adding content. I have notes and announcements of performances that were a part of the site, and I’ll be adding them retroactively to the “Performances” blog category.
After all, search engines crawl content, not designs!
Okay, We’re on Facebook. What Now?
May 1st, 2010Social media and social networking have been all the buzz (a word Google chose to adopt) for the last several years. Public relations professionals are all a-twitter (you get the idea) with the prospects of using these technologies for various kinds of marketing and focused campaigns
I confess that I knew next to nothing about both facebook and Twitter until a project at Cars.com sent me on a crash course. And now Chicago Bass Ensemble has both a Twitter account and a facebook page, in addition to the MySpace page that we’ve had since the beginning.
But I’ll tell you the truth: I don’t really know what to do with all these venues for public connection! As you can see from the preceding paragraph, I don’t even know how to link you to the facebook page. I think you have to already be a member of facebook to see it, anyway. What good is that?!
Ah, if only I had some gigs to publicize! Send your ideas!
Sneaking Away with the Keys
April 29th, 2010Michael Hovnanian wrote a very amusing, yet also deeply felt and thought-provoking post on his blog a few days ago.
I’ve done my share of playing in big orchestras–maybe not the full share I wish I had, because I love the sound and feel and power of playing the “big” repertoire–but enough to have experienced some of the sort of frustration that Michael occasionally discusses in his blog. It can be very disheartening to feel that one has little input into the decisions made musically, or to cower–figuratively–in a corner of your technique, worrying that you aren’t doing it the right way–whether that’s your bow stroke or your fingering or how you count rests or turn pages.
In a smaller group, each member has much more responsibility, authority and input. Playing new repertoire, there isn’t yet a right way to do it. Playing with colleagues entirely of your own choosing, there is a mutual respect and nonjudgmental teaching and learning. In Michael’s words, I hope that the Chicago Bass Ensemble is sneaking away with the keys.
WordPress Install, Day Two
April 25th, 2010It’s early Sunday morning, and I’ll say that I’m pretty pleased with the way the cut-over (cut-over? more like a smush-over) to WordPress has gone.
Customizing the header appears to be the next tough task — as I write I’m still using a barely tweaked version of the default header:
After that, trying to actually get all the spacing, fonts and miscellaneous graphics back to Antony Viot‘s original vision will be a major chore. WordPress experts who care to recommend a theme to start from are welcome to comment!!
