Photograph of James VanDemark by Kurt Brownell, 2013
Eastman’s longtime professor of double bass, James VanDemark, will be the featured recitalist at ISB 2015 – this year’s convention of the International Society of Bassists, to be held at Colorado State University from June 1-6, 2015. His ISB Convention recital will be held Friday, June 5. VanDemark recalls, “I attended the first ISB Convention as a beginning student in Madison, Wisconsin in 1967, and was one of the featured soloists at the second ISB Convention in 1968.”
VanDemark has taught at Eastman since 1976. His students hold positions in many of the world’s great orchestras and teaching appointments at major music schools. An acclaimed soloist and chamber music performer, and a proponent of contemporary music, he has commissioned works from three Pulitzer Prize-winning composers: Christopher Rouse, Joseph Schwantner, and Gian Carlo Menotti.
A contemporary work will be featured on VanDemark’s ISB recital. “Among other works,” he says, “I will be performing Incantation for double bass and baritone voice (I perform both roles), a work written for me by Adrienne Elisha, which I premiered at Eastman in 2012, and then repeated with the Rochester City Ballet in January 2014.”