Richard Davis
Founder
Richard Davis is the Professor of Bass (European Classical and Jazz), Jazz History, and Combo Improvisation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Chicago born, Richard Davis came to the UW in 1977 after spending twenty-three years in New York City establishing himself as one of the world’s premier bass players.
Peter Dominguez
Artistic Director
Peter grew up in Milwaukee playing with his father, pianist and singer Frank DeMiles. His teachers included Bernard Stepner, Clyde Russell, Willard Feldman, and Mitchell Covic. Peter went on to study with Roger Ruggeri and Richard Davis at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he earn his baccalaureate and masters degrees. In 1980 he was the first recipient of the Milton J.
Ben Ferris
Conference Coordinator
Ben Ferris is a Bassist, Composer and Educator from Madison, WI. A student of NEA Jazz Master Richard Davis, he graduated with a music-education degree from UW-Madison where he is currently pursuing a masters in String Performance. Ben performs regularly in the midwest, especially with the Ben Ferris Trio, a creative music ensemble that focuses on new compositions by musicians in the band. His group the Ben Ferris Quintet released their debut album, “Home” in 2016 featuring original compositions by Ben and other members of the ensemble.
Catherine Harris
Executive Director
Catherine loves playing bass and takes every opportunity to do so. She was privileged to study with Professor Richard Davis at UW-Madison. During the summer, she takes a break from being a volunteer for the Foundation to play with Orquesta Salsoul del Mad and the Underground Chamber Collective.
Philip Alejo
Clinician
Philip Alejo currently teaches at St. Ambrose University (IA) and served as Visiting Professor of Bass at the University of Michigan in 2011. During the 2010-2011 season, Philip was a member of the Chicago Civic Orchestra. In addition, Philip is the Associate Principal Bass of the Quad City Symphony Orchestra and regularly performs with Ensemble Dal Niente, the Flint Symphony Orchestra, and the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra.
Daniel Chmielinski
Clinician
Dan “Chimy” (shim’-ee) Chmielinski is a New York Times critically acclaimed, award winning bassist, composer, synthesist, sound designer and bandleader. Currently based in Los Angeles, Dan maintains a bi-coastal schedule comprised of live performances, film scoring, and music production. Dan founded and leads several groups of his own, including “Four by Four,” an octet which showcases a jazz quartet alongside string quartet, and “Circuit Kisser,” an electronic ensemble consisting of five synthesizers, electric bass and drums, combining jazz harmonies and electronic music; both showcasing Dan’s original compositions.
Virginia Dixon
Clinician
tVirginia Dixon teaches at Wheaton and Elmhurst Colleges the Music Institute of Chicago, and the Suzuki School of Elgin. Summers find her teaching at Suzuki instutes which this year include Snowmass, CO, New Orleans, and Cleveland, and Stevens Point, WI .
Diana Gannett
Clinician
Diana Gannett, now Professor Emerita of Bass at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, moved to Michigan in the Summer of 2001. Previously, she was Professor of Bass at University of Iowa after years of teaching and performing on the east coast.
Larry Hutchinson
Clinician
Larry Hutchinson is an active performer, teacher, and clinician. He is currently in his 30th season as a member of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. In addition to teaching a studio of private bass students, he has directed the annual Troy Bass Workshop, sponsored by Michigan ASTA, since 1984.
Jerry Jemmott
Clinician
Jerry Jemmott was one of the preeminent session bassists of the late ’60s and early ’70s, working with an impressive cross-section of the era’s finest soul, jazz, and blues artists. Gerald Joseph Stenhouse Jemmott grew up in New York City and began playing the bass when he discovered Paul Chambers at age ten; by age 12, he was already skilled enough to perform in public, and studied Charles Mingus intensely.
John Kennedy
Clinician
John Kennedy is nationally recognized as a clinician teaching the Young Bassist. Currently President of the International Society of Bassists, he was chair of their 2011 international convention in San Francisco. He has directed the Young Bassist Program at previous conventions.
Bill Koehler
Clinician
Bill Koehler has performed in numerous orchestras in New York City, the southeast, the mid-west and has performed with notable jazz and improvising musicians such as Sam Brown, Joe Tekula, Harold Seletsky, Umalpurim Siveraman, Patrick Marks, John Clark, Joe Morello, John Campbell, Carl Fontana, Dave Burrell, Jimmy Guiffre, David Baker, Harvey Phillips, Turk Van Lake, Wycliffe Gordon and the Orchid Ensemble and Nashville country music producer Byron Gallimore.
Paul Kowert
Clinician
Paul Kowert grew up in Madison, Wisconsin. Upon graduating from The Curtis Institute of Music in 2009, he joined the band Punch Brothers and moved to Brooklyn, NY. Since then they have made four albums (the most recent, All Ashore, won a Grammy for Best Folk Album), contributed music to “The Hunger Games,” “This is Forty,” and “Inside Llewyn Davis,” appeared on Austin City Limits and the Coen Brothers’ concert documentary “Another Day, Another Time,” and various other fun things.
David Murray
Clinician
David Murray was born in Canada and began studies on the double bass at age 12. He worked in high school with Gary Karr and continued college education with Mr. Karr at the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, CT. During summers, David attended the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, A F of M String Congress, and both Tanglewood and Aspen as a Fellowship recipient.
Sandor Ostlund
Clinician
Sandor Ostlund is Associate Professor of Double Bass at Baylor University. He is an active and versatile performer as a soloist, and as a chamber, early music, and orchestral musician, as well as being in demand as a double bass clinician.He has been invited to teach and perform at clinics and universities including, Penn State University, Northwestern University, SUNY-Stony Brook, James Madison University, Golden Gate Bass Camp, Colorado Suzuki Institute, American Festival for the Arts, Shenandoah Conservatory Performing Arts Festival, the Texas Double Bass Symposium, the Midwest Double Bass Symposium, and the annual Richard Davis Double Bass Conference.
Andrew Raciti
Clinician
Andrew Raciti was born in Milwaukee in 1975. He began playing the violin as part of a public school Suzuki string program at age 4. After playing violin for 8 years, he quit and played sports for a few years.During his junior year in high school, Andy wanted to play the violin again, but a broken wrist suffered while playing football limited the range of movement for the turning of his left arm, so the wise orchestra director of his high school, Ronald Melby (who had also been one of his violin teachers), drove to Andy’s house and dropped off a bass.During the summer before his senior year in high school, Andy began private lessons with Milwaukee Symphony bassist Laura Snyder, his first teacher.
Rufus Reid
Clinician
Rufus Reid is a forty-five year veteran jazz bassist with over 400 recordings in his discography. His musical prowess can be found perfectly comfortable in an array of performance settings. Rufus Reid is equally known as an exceptional educator teaching clinics and workshops all over the world.
Paul Robinson
Clinician
Paul Robinson is professor of double bass at The Ohio State University. He is principal bass of the Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra and is a former member of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra and the United States Navy Band in Washington, D.
Marlene Rosenberg
Clinician
Not only a performer with many accolades, and who has played with Jazz greats including Joe Henderson, Nancy Wilson, Roy Hargrove and Stan Getz, Jazzmeia Horn, Makaya McCraven and Marquis Hill, Marlene is also an accomplished educator. She is currently the coordinator of the Jazz combo program at Northern Illinois University, and has also taught at Roosevelt University, Elmhurst College, Western Illinois, and Northwestern.
Beau Sample
Clinician
Beau Sample is a Chicago based upright and electric bassist. He was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. He moved to Chicago from Austin, Texas where he performed and recorded for 3 years and attended Texas State University (Jazz and Orchestral studies.) He played in Austin as a member of Elana James and The Hot Club of Cowtown, The Dave Biller Combo, The Seth Walker Band, Whit Smith’s Hot Jazz Caravan and others.
Donovan Stokes
Clinician
Bassist Donovan Stokes enjoys a varied career of performing, composing, writing and teaching. Stokes is currently Professor of classical and jazz bass at Shenandoah University-Conservatory where he teaches bass, coaches chamber music, directs the Bass Ensemble and acts as head of the String Area.
Mark Urness
Clinician
Mark Urness is a versatile bassist, composer, and educator. His diverse performance experience encompasses orchestral, chamber, solo, jazz playing. He is an associate professor of music at Lawrence University in Appleton Wisconsin and the principal bassist of the Weidner Center Philharmonic Orchestra.
Beth Wilson
Piano Accompianist
Beth Wilson, piano accompanist, has been at all 21 bass conferences so far! She received a B.A. in piano performance from Luther College (Decorah, Iowa), and an M.A. in fine arts education from Truman State University (Kirksville, Missouri). She has played in the back-up band for the Ink Spots and the Diamonds, and was recently in the pit orchestra for the touring company of “Wicked”.
“Clinicians in the Wings”
Russel Blake, Michael Klinghoffer, Barry Green, Eva Brauninger, John Clayton, Rolf Erdahl, Ross Gilliland, Merideth Lewis, Evan Premo, Christian McBride, Jacqueline Pickett, Helen Stevenson, Kristen Korb, Barry Green, Michael Klinghoffer, Jerry Fuller, Victor Miranda, Jerry Jemmott, Betsy Soukup, Chris Maxwell, Christine Riotto, Brian Melk, Blake Hinson, Emma Dayhuff, Kenny Jones, Chuck Rainey, Hans Sturm, Tine Asmundsen, Gillian Martwick, Jeff Spaniola.
Clinicians + Board Members in Memorial
Milt Hinton
Gunther Schuller
Inez Wyrick
Inez Wyrick resided in Virginia and taught bassists at the Shenandoah Conservatory Arts Academy and throughout the Washington D.C. metro area. Previous to moving to Virginia she inaugurated the Double Bass studio of the Indiana University String Academy and is currently collaborating on a DVD project with Mimi Zweig and Brenda Brenner. She is an internationally acclaimed pedagogue who specializes in pre-college string education with numerous publications to her credit. Her arrangements and compositions for bass ensemble have been performed worldwide and her first CDROM of bass ensembles entitled Music for Double Bass Ensemble, Vol. I: 30 Christmas Carols for “Same Level” and “Mixed Level” Double Bass Ensemble was released in 2005. She published over 100 works for bass ensemble, and was an active lecturer, clinician and traveling “911 – bass teacher.” She was on the faculties of Indiana University String Academy, Amarillo College, Odessa College and Texas Tech University Orchestra Camp and was founder of the Amarillo Bass Base, a bass ensemble which held an international reputation. As a performer she has been a jazz bassist her entire professional life and was a member of the Amarillo Symphony for 34 years, where she served as Assistant Principal for 25 years. As an Educator, Ms. Wyrick has given lectures and clinics for the International Society of Bassists, Texas Music Educators Association, the American String Teachers Association and the Manchester Bass Week. Inez Wyrick has also published several articles in the United States and abroad on her particular style and system of Double-Bass pedagogy. Her students teach and hold professional positions in ensembles and educational institutions worldwide. In 2001 she was the honored recipient of the “Young Bassists Ambassador” award from the International Society of Bassists