Gary Karr | |
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| Background information | |
| Born | November 20, 1941 Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Genres | Classical |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, professor |
| Instrument(s) | Double bass |
| Years active | ca. 1960–2002 |
| Website | www.GaryKarr.com |
Gary Michael Karr (born November 20, 1941 in Los Angeles) is an American classical double bass virtuoso and teacher; he is considered one of the best bassists of the 20th and 21st centuries.[ citation needed ]
Although he comes from several generations of bassists, [1] he was not encouraged by them to go into music. In an interview with ActiveBass magazine he said that he has no contact with the professional bassists in his family. [2]
After attending Fairfax High School and USC, [3] Karr studied at the Aspen Music Festival and the Juilliard School, where his major teachers included Herman Reinshagen and Stuart Sankey. Karr's breakthrough came in 1962, when he was featured as a soloist in a nationally televised New York Philharmonic Young People's Concert, conducted by Leonard Bernstein. On that famous telecast, Karr performed "The Swan" from The Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns. Karr also recorded the piece with Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic.
He has since appeared as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Simon Bolivar Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, and with all the major orchestras of Australia.
He has premiered new works written for him by Vittorio Giannini (Psalm CXX), Alec Wilder (Sonata for Double Bass and Piano and Suite for Double Bass and Guitar), Robert Xavier Rodriguez (Ursa, Four Seasons for Double Bass and Orchestra), and the concertos for double bass and orchestra by Gunther Schuller, Hans Werner Henze, John Downey and Ketil Hvoslef. He has recorded the Serge Koussevitzky concerto with Oslo Philharmonic.
He has taught double bass on the faculties of the Juilliard School, New England Conservatory of Music, The Hartt School, Yale University, Indiana University, University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and the Halifax (Nova Scotia) Schools Music Program and has published a number of instructional books for the double bass. He focuses on finding one's unique sound on the double bass and approaching playing with the lyrical emphasis of a singer.
After 40 years as a concert artist he retired in 2001 to Victoria, British Columbia, where he lives with his dog Shin-Ju, and his dear friend and companion, fellow musician Harmon Lewis.
In 1967 Karr founded the International Society of Bassists (ISB), an organization devoted to the study, promotion, and advancement of double bass playing around the world. The ISB, with a membership of more than 3,000 double bass performers, teachers, students, and aficionados in more than 40 countries, hosts an international conference biannually to further these goals.
Karr was featured in two BBC documentaries; The Great Double Bass Race in 1978, and Amazing Bass in 1984.
In 2005, Karr donated his primary instrument, the Karr-Koussevitzky bass, to the ISB. This instrument was given to Karr by Olga Koussevitzky, widow of Serge Koussevitzky, in 1961. It is the intention of the ISB to make this valuable instrument available for use by double bassists worldwide. [4] The Karr-Koussevitzky bass was once believed to have been made by the Amati family and hence it is also referred to as the Amati bass. [5]
The non-profit Karr Double Bass Foundation, which loans instruments to promising young double bassists to assist in their professional development, was established by Karr in 1984.
The double bass, also known simply as the bass, amongst other names, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra. Similar in structure to the cello, it has four, although occasionally five, strings.
Julius Baker was one of the foremost American orchestral flute players. During the course of five decades he concertized with several of America's premier orchestral ensembles including the Chicago Symphony and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
William Howard Schuman was an American composer and arts administrator.
Serge Koussevitzky, born Sergey Aleksandrovich Kusevitsky was a Russian-born conductor, composer and double-bassist, known for his long tenure as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1924 to 1949.
Eric Ewazen is an American composer and teacher.
The International Society of Bassists (ISB) is a 501(C)(3) not-for-profit organization for anybody who enjoys the double bass. The society was founded in 1967 by Gary Karr as the International Institute for String Bass (IISB). After a two-year hiatus of the IISB, the International Society of Bassists was launched with Barry Green as executive director, and the society maintains that name today. The president of the Society from 1982-1991 was Jeff Bradetich. The current president is Douglas Mapp, double bass professor at Rowan University, and the General Manager is Madeline Crouch of Don Dillon Associates. The society has about 3,000 members in about 40 countries and is steered by an international board of directors.
Homer Mensch was a prominent classical bassist who was a former member of the Pittsburgh Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the New York Pops, and the NBC Symphony. Mensch held faculty positions at Yale University, at the Manhattan School of Music, the Juilliard School, the Mannes College of Music, Rutgers University, Dalcroze School, Queens College, and Catholic University. He taught upwards of 45 students a week from beginners, to conservatory students, to professionals both in the classical and jazz fields.
Glenn Dicterow, is an American violinist and former concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. He is on the faculty of the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music where he holds the Jascha Heifetz Chair in Violin as well as serving as a faculty artist at the Music Academy of the West.
The Karr-Kousevitzky bass or Amati bass is a famous double bass previously belonging to Serge Koussevitzky and Gary Karr. Now generally referred to as the Karr-Koussevitzky rather than the Amati; until recently, the bass had been attributed to the Amati brothers, but now it is generally believed to have its origins in France. It is renowned for its tonal quality in solo music but is considered to be difficult to play.
Dennis Trembly is Professor of string bass at the University of Southern California. He is also one of two principal bassists for the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Stuart Sankey was a pedagogue of the double bass. His students included Gary Karr, the first bass player of the modern era to make a career as a solo artist, and Edgar Meyer. He taught for nearly 50 years at the Aspen Music School. He also held teaching positions at the University of Texas, Indiana University, and the University of Michigan. He made a large number of transcriptions for the double bass, increasing the literature for the instrument. Sankey was born in Los Angeles, Calif., in 1927. He attended the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and the Juilliard School of Music. His teachers included Frederick Zimmermann, Jean Morel and Henry Brant.
Elyakum Shapirra was an Israeli conductor who appeared in a number of countries.
Leonard Shure was an American concert pianist. He began his career as a performer at the age of 5 and as a teenager studied privately with Artur Schnabel in Germany.
Svante Henryson is a composer, cellist, bass guitarist and double bassist, active within jazz, classical music, and hard rock.
Mark Morton is an American classical musician and academic working as an associate professor of double bass at Texas Tech University, principal double bassist of the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra, and the artistic director of the American School of Double Bass.
Gunars Upatnieks is a Latvian double-bass player and member of the Berlin Philharmonic.
The Concerto for Piano and Orchestra is a musical composition by the American composer Aaron Copland. The work was commissioned by the conductor Serge Koussevitzky who was then music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. It was first performed on January 28, 1927, by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Koussevitzky with the composer himself as the soloist. The piece is dedicated to Copland's patron Alma Morgenthau Wertheim.
Shinji Takane Eshima is a Japanese-American musician, composer, and teacher.
Seymour Lipkin was an American concert pianist, conductor, and educator.
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