It finally arrived! I can’t figure out how to open it though.
Joel Quarrington’s radical tune-up
May 13th, 10
/ 0 Comments
The bassist’s great triumph isn’t the Juno he just won, or even moonlighting with the LSO
Photograph by Blair Gable
Last month Joel Quarrington won a Juno award, in the category of Classical Album of the Year: Solo or Chamber Ensemble. A few days later Quarrington’s colleagues in Ottawa’s National Arts Centre Orchestra threw a surprise reception for him. There were speeches and cake.
Quarrington is the orchestra’s principal double bassist. Partly because his instrument is normally viewed as lumbering and ungainly, he didn’t get excited when Garden Scene, his latest album of virtuoso bass pieces with piano accompaniment, was nominated for a Juno. Violinists usually win that sort of thing. “It’s not in my nature that I would have ever gone to that event,” Quarrington said.
But then he won, and now people congratulate him everywhere he goes. The people who seem happiest are his fellow bassists. This is because Quarrington, a big 55-year-old with curly hair and a goofy grin, is considered by his peers to be among the finest bassists anywhere. And also because he is a bit of a revolutionary on the instrument.
Video: Joel Quarrington’s bass revolution
May 12th, 10
/ 0 Comments
In the last print edition of Maclean’s, I had a profile of Joel Quarrington, the principal double bassist of the NAC Orchestra, who won a classical-music Juno a few weeks ago for his CD Garden Scene. Principal-chair players in every section in every prominent Canadian orchestra are formidable musical talents, but Quarrington’s influence and the respect he commands among peers goes further than that. Also he’s a funny guy.
But what’s most interesting is the way he’s adopted an unusual method for tuning his bass, at intervals of a fifth instead of a fourth. This turns out to have effects on the instrument that would have been hard to predict, so while I was interviewing Quarrington I shot some video. This’ll help readers see, hear and understand what I’m trying to describe. So here’s Joel Quarrington:
A Juno for NACO bassist Quarrington
Apr 20th, 10
/ 0 Comments
Ottawa double bassist Joel Quarrington won a 2010 Juno Award in St. John’s on Saturday for his CD Garden Scene.
Quarrington, the principal double bassist of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, won in the category of Classical Album of the Year: Solo or Chamber Ensemble.
Quarrington’s CD on the Analekta label, also featuring pianist Andrew Burashko, includes pieces by Korngold, Bottesini, Gliere and others.
Born in Toronto, Quarrington began playing the double bass at age 11 and studied in Toronto, Rome, Vienna and Prague.
Other nominees in the category included violinist Angèle Dubeau & La Pietà, I Musici de Montréal and violinist James Ehnes and Ottawa harpist Caroline Léonardelli.
Léonardelli was nominated for her CD El Dorado, for the Centaur Classics label. Quarrington was also featured as a guest performer on Léonardelli’s CD.
© Copyright 2010
Bass World Review: Garden Scene
Mar 5th, 10
/ 0 Comments
The past 15 months have seen a flurry of recordings featuring Canadian bass virtuoso Joel Quarrington; the release of his second Bottesini CD on Naxos, a duo disc with cellist Coenraad Bloemendal, a Trout with Yefim Bronfman, and Marjan Mozetich’s El Dorado with harpist Caroline Leonardell, and now this outstanding release on the Analekta label. Matched up with his two previous solos CDs and other chamber music recordings like the Mendelssohn sextet this constitutes an impressive catalogue.
Those lucky enough to have been in the Kirkpatrick Theatre at the 2007 convention at Oklahoma City University to hear Joel’s ISB debut caught one of the highlights of that week, and for many one of the most impressive double bass recitals ever to grace a convention. This studio CD contains that whole program, including the encore, and the recording captures everything that made that evening so memorable.