Bertram Turetzky

Bertram Turetzky (born February 14, 1933 in Norwich ( Connecticut )) is an American double bass player who works as a virtuoso, instrumental teacher, composer and improviser. Turetzky is considered one of the key figures in the rediscovery of the double bass as a solo instrument in classical music. He works in a wide variety of genres, from renaissance and baroque music to Viennese classic and new music to klezmer , world music and jazz .

Live and act

Turetzky grew up in Connecticut. He was initially enthusiastic about jazz and studied music history up to a master’s degree at the University of Hartford , where he also played in the symphony orchestra and held an assistant professorship. In 1964 he presented his first album, on which he interpreted works by the American composers George Perle , Edgard Varèse , Donald Martino , Kenneth Gabburo, Ben Johnston and Charles Whittenburg. As a virtuoso, he has also performed on concert stages in the United States, Latin America, Europe and Australia, from symphonic settings to solo concerts. Since 1955, numerous compositions for double bass have been dedicated to him, for example by Iannis Xenakis , Donald Erb and Michael Finnissy. He received awards for his own compositions, which also focus on the double bass.

He also worked with Charles Mingus (for his own album New Music for Contrabass , 1976). In recent years he has released a series of recordings with musicians of the modern creative and improvised music such as George Lewis , Vinny Golia or Wadada Leo Smith , but also with his wife, the flautist Nancy Turetzky. At the Total Music Meeting 2003 he performed with Richard Teitelbaum and Anne LeBaron .

Turetzky taught as a college professor at the University of California, San Diego . His students include Mark Dresser (who now holds his professorship), Mario Pavone and Karl EH Seigfried.

Turetzky is the author of the standard work The Contemporary Contrabass and co-editor of the book series The New Instrumentation . He also wrote an introduction to Pops Foster's autobiography.

Discography (selection)

• Contrabassist Advance FGR-1, 1964.
• The Virtuoso Double Bass , Medea Records, 1966.
• The New World of Sound , Ars Nova, 1969.
• The Contemporary Contrabass (music by John Cage , Ben Johnson, and Pauline Oliveros ), Nonesuch Records, 1969–70.
• Dragonetti Lives , Takoma Records, 1975.
• A Different View , Folkways Records 1982.
• Bertram Turetzky / Vinny Golia Intersections 9 Winds Label, 1990.
• Second Avenue Klezmer Ensemble, Traditions and Transitions Second Avenue, 1992.
• Compositions and Improvisations 9 Winds Records, 1993.
• Pacific Parable, Orphan Records, 1993.
• Wadada Leo Smith, Vinny Golia, Bertram Turetzky Prataxis 9 Winds Records, 1997.
• George E. Lewis , Bertram Turetzky Conversations Incus Records , 1998.
• Barre Phillips / Bertram Turetzky / Vinny Golia Trignition 9 Winds Records, 1998.
• Bertram Turetzky / Mike Wofford Transition & Transformation , with George Lewis, Glen Campell, Mary Lindblom, Lorie Kirkell, Kristin Korb , Nine Winds Records, 2000.
• Bertram Turetzky / Damon Smith Thougtbeetle BPA, 2007.
• Bertram & Nancy Turetzky Spirit Song: Music for Contrabass & Flute Imaginary Chicago Records, 2011.

literature

• Applebaum, Samuel. The Way they Play , Paganiniana Publications, 1984.
• Anderson, E. Ruth. Contemporary American composers. A biographical dictionary , Second edition, GK Hall, 1982.
• Larkin, Colin. The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music , Guinness Publishing, 1992.
• Press, Jacques Cattell (Ed.). Who's who in American Music. Classical , first edition. RR Bowker, New York 1983.
• Sadie, Stanley; Hitchcock, H. Wiley (Ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of American Music . Grove's Dictionaries of Music, 1986.

Web links

• Bertram Turetzky University of California ( Memento from May 25, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
• interview