Nicholas Walker will present a free string bass free recital at 7 pm on Tuesday, September 11 in the Hockett Family Recital Hall in Ithaca College’s James J. Whalen Center for Music. Walker is assistant professor of music performance at the School of Music.
The program will include a transcription of J.S. Bach's third cello suite, a romantic “Elegy” by 19th century bass virtuoso Giovanni Bottesini, and a contemporary piece based on Pablo Picasso's “La Guernica (La Guerre et La Paix)” by Walker's mentor, François Rabbath. Rabbath will be at Ithaca College September 17 through 21 as an artist in residence courtesy of the Boehmler Foundation.
Walker rounds out the program with two of his own compositions featuring his colleagues, cellist Elizabeth Simkin and violinist Rebecca Ansel: "Paris Skies" is a mournful, contemplative ballad for bass and cello, and "An Dassa Choof!" is a jazz-funk inspired jam for bass and violin.
Walker earned his DMA in Early Music at Stony Brook University in 2004. Walker has also apprenticed with two master mentors: for three years he toured with swing era saxophone legend Illinois Jacquet, and for the last 14 years, Walker has worked closely with the pioneering maestro of the bass, François Rabbath.
As a Fulbright Scholar (1994-95) he began his training with Rabbath at the Nadia Boulanger Conservatoire de Paris. His research focused on pedagogical components of Rabbath's "Nouvelle Technique de la Contrabasse," and adapting Rabbath's technique and repertoire for the American jazz and Latin music traditions.
