The Double Bass Warm-Up Intensive
July 5 - 30 2021
The Double Bass Warm-Up Intensive is a summer festival for pre-professional bass students ages 15-22 that focuses on the warm-up portion of what we do on a daily basis. Musicians, but bass players in particular, are musical athletes, and for optimal health and performance, we must learn to treat ourselves that way. In each warm-up class, you will build an awareness of your body that will serve your bass playing and musicianship for years to come. You will learn to refine your bow technique, left hand technique, and build exercises for yourself that address your repertoire and the challenges found within them. In addition to myself, we have four fabulous guest artists who will be showing you what their warm-up routines look like and give you models to base your own personalized warm-up on.
Class will meet weekdays from July 5-30 at 10 AM CDT on Zoom. We are fully online this year in the interest of both equity and safety. Total cost for the Intensive is $450, but there is significant scholarship available - please don’t let the price deter you from applying.
Questions? Contact me at s.e.neilson@gmail.com
Faculty
Nina began playing the bass at the age of eight studying with George Vance, the renowned young bassist pedagogue. Through Vance, Nina worked closely with the virtuosic François Rabbath throughout the beginning of her bass studies. Other early influences include Ali Yazdanfar, Ira Gold, and Hal Robinson. As a young bassist, Nina competed in the International Society of Bassists' competitions, winning first place in both the Under-14 and 15-18 age divisions. Later on in her career, she won first place in the UT Bassfest competition and the River Concert Series Concerto Competition, which led to a performance of the Vanhal concerto with the Chesapeake Orchestra.
In 2010, Nina began her studies at Rice University with Paul Ellison and graduated with a Bachelor in Music Performance degree in 2014. During her time at Rice, she attended several summer programs and festivals, including Tanglewood Music Center, Sarasota Music Festival, Moritzburg Festival Academy, Wabass Institute and Domaine Forget Academy. In 2012, Nina was awarded Rice University's Wagoner Fellowship to spend the summer in Paris, studying intensively with François Rabbath. Continuing to cultivate her solo playing throughout her studies, Nina represented the Shepherd School with a solo performance at the Kennedy Center as a part of the Conservatory Project.
Later in 2014, Nina won a section bass position with the Oregon Symphony and moved to Portland, Oregon to begin her first orchestral job. During her time in Portland, she performed with the Seattle Symphony and the Oregon Bach Festival, as well as performing frequently as a chamber musician with Third Angle New Music, 45th Parallel, and Classical Up Close. In addition to her performing career, Nina is passionate about teaching, both through her private studio and appearing as faculty at the KC Bass Workshop, the Twin Cities Bass Camp, and the Rabbath Institute Los Angeles.
In 2019, Nina won an audition for the Baltimore Symphony and is honored to be joining the bass section in September of 2020.
Ira Gold made his Carnegie Hall solo debut in 2011, performing the Vanhal Bass Concerto with the Catholic University of America Symphony Orchestra.
Prior to joining the National Symphony in 2005, Gold performed with several American orchestras, as section bass with the Minnesota Orchestra and as guest principal bassist with the San Francisco Symphony and Detroit Symphony. He has attended festivals such as the Grand Teton Music Festival, Domaine Forget Music Academy, Bach Festival Leipzig, Aspen, and Tanglewood. Gold spent several summers at the International Festival Institute at Round Top both as a student and faculty.
He is continually in demand for recitals and master classes, including recent visits at The Juilliard School, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Penn State University, University of North Texas, the International Society of Bassists Convention, and the Manhattan School of Music. Gold maintains a studio of private students, has taught lessons and coached chamber music in the National Symphony Orchestra Youth Fellowship program, and has been a member of the double bass faculty at the Peabody Conservatory since 2009. He is also a co-founding member of Peabody Bass Works, a one-week bass camp held every July at Peabody.
An active chamber musician, Gold has performed with the East Coast Chamber Orchestra, the NSO Millennium Stage Prelude Series, Peabody Conservatory faculty, and the New Orchestra of Washington.
He earned his Bachelor of Music degree at Boston University’s College of Fine Arts, and his Master of Music degree at 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, and additional studies with Albert Laszlo, Kenneth Harper, Dennis Whittaker, Mark Shapiro, and Harry Lantz.
Andrew Raciti is the Associate Principal Bass of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He is also the head of the double bass studio of the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University. Before joining the Milwaukee Symphony in 2006, Mr. Raciti was Associate Principal Bass of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in Australia. He has also performed with the Detroit Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. In the summers he performs as Principal and Tutti Bass at the Grand Teton Music Festival. He has also played as Principal Bass of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. In South America he has been a regular professor for the Filharmonica Joven de Colombia. Numerous solo performances include the United States premiere of the Concerto for Double Bass and String Orchestra by the Macedonian composer, Zivoin Glisic. A recognized authority in bass pedagogy and performance, Mr. Raciti has published various articles in the quarterly for the International Society of Bassists.
Gaelen McCormick is the Program Manager of the Eastman Performing Arts Medicine (EPAM) program, a part of the University of Rochester. Before joining EPAM in 2018, she was a musician with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra from 1995-2017. Since losing her hearing in 2017, Gaelen has forged a new career path as a composer, arranger, and arts administrator. She is grateful that her abilities as a performing artist have shaped the way for her new career path.
Teaching students of all ages has been a significant part of Gaelen’s life. She is the Instructor of Double Bass at the Eastman Community Music School, and teaches career skills at the collegiate level in the Arts Leadership Program at the Eastman School of Music. Her double bass bow pedagogy series, Mastering the Bow, and her first book of compositions, Double Trouble, are published by Carl Fischer. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Society of Bassists, and is the editor of their Bass World magazine’s teaching column.
Gaelen holds degrees in performance from the Eastman School where she studied with James VanDemark and Carnegie Mellon University where she studied with Jeffrey Turner. She is an alumna of the League of American Orchestra’s Essentials of Orchestral Management training program.