The Robert G. Boehmler Community Foundation series will bring François Rabbath -- the "Paganini of the String Bass" -- to Ithaca College for a free performance on Wednesday, September 19. The concert will begin at 7:00 p.m. in the Hockett Family Recital Hall in the James J. Whalen Center for Music. The program will include compositions by Rabbath himself as well as the music of Frank Proto.
In addition to his public performance, Rabbath will give two master classes at venues in the Whalen Center on Thursday and Friday, September 20 and 21.
Born in Aleppo, Syria, and moving to Beirut, Lebanon, at an early age, Rabbath taught himself the bass from a book in a language he could not read. After moving to Paris, he began to earn his living as an accompanist for several leading musicians of the day, including Jacque Brel, Charles Aznavour, Gilbert Becaud and Michel Legrand. In 1963 Rabbath made his first of many solo record albums. Although never advertised or promoted, the Phillips album "Bass Ball" became one of the most sought-after recordings of its time.
In 1964, Rabbath became active composing music for movies and the theater. At the same time he started to play solo recitals, first in France, then throughout Europe. His American debut was in Carnegie Hall in 1975.
Three years later Rabbath met the American composer and double bassist Frank Proto. A close friendship quickly developed when the two discovered that they had many shared musical experiences and philosophies. Neither had any respect for the boundaries that separated classical, jazz and ethnic musicians. Both were as comfortable playing chamber music at a formal concert one day and improvising with jazz musicians the next.
Rabbath is coming to campus thanks to a grant from the Robert G. Boehmler Community Foundation. Boehmler, who received a bachelor's degree from the Ithaca College School of Music in 1938 and a master's degree in 1961, was a musician and educator who established this foundation to support education in the communities in which he lived. A music teacher in the Palmyra-Macedon (New York) School District for many years, Boehmler died in 1998.
For more about Rabbath, visit www.liben.com/FRBio.html. For more information on the concert, contact Erik Kibelsbeck in the Ithaca College School of Music at (607) 274-3717.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20070913165537243