Joshua Lambert and Professor Eric Hansen, Music Department
Throughout classical music history, most major composers of the baroque, classical and romantic eras overlooked the bass as a solo instrument leaving the instrument’s repertoire tragically underdeveloped. In recent decades, however, a significant number of virtuoso double bassists has emerged and, along with them, significant new solo works have changed the way the instrument is played and heard. These luminary bassists devoted much of their careers to developing a new pedagogy for the double bass in an effort to compensate for centuries of pedagogical deficiency. One of the leading figures in this movement to advance the double bass as a solo instrument is Dr. Eugene Levinson, Principal Bass of the New York Philharmonic and Professor of Double Bass at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City.
Dr. Levinson has had an illustrious career as a bassist, as principal bass and soloist with some of the world’s finest orchestras. In addition to being considered by many to be the one of the world’s greatest performers on the double bass, Dr. Levinson is one of the instrument’s most sought after teachers. What sets him apart is that he has total technical control of the instrument, meaning he is able to beautifully play pieces on the double bass previously thought to be impossible. While many once considered the bass a clumsy and ugly instrument, Levinson plays his instrument on a par with celebrated soloist like Yo Yo Ma, Joshua Bell and Jascha Heifetz. Dr. Levinson’s technical command over the bass enables him to use the instrument to convey his innermost musical ideas, which is the ultimate achievement for a musician. Many of his students have gone on to win positions in many of the greatest orchestras throughout the world and to teach at prestigious schools of music.
Central to the success of Dr. Levinson and his students is his highly advanced and progressive techniques, which open up the bass as a beautiful and pleasing instrument even to the nonmusician. In 2002 Levinson published a method book entitled The School of Agility where he explains his technique. The purpose of this project, was to gain an intimate understanding of Eugene Levinson’s methodology while making it understandable to my students in my private studio.
The primary method of preparation and research was mentored study with a master teacher. In July 2014, I traveled to New York City to study directly with Mr. Levinson. We had a series of ten lessons over two weeks. I prepared for the lesson by thoroughly studying Mr. Levinson’s book The School of Agility with Professor Eric Hansen, who was a private student of Levinson’s for many years. Concerto for Double Bass Op.3 by Serge Koussevitzky is one of the most important pieces in the double bass repertoire, partly due to Levinson’s recordings and new interpretation of the piece. So, I studied the Koussevitzky Concerto in preparation for learning Levinson’s approach.
Despite my thorough preparation I was taken aback at how rigorous my first lesson with Levinson was. Levinson’s approach to teaching is more direct than I expected. His philosophy seemed to be based on tearing down old habits and techniques then rebuilding based on his technical approach. Our first lesson was primarily a rigorous critique of my bad habits. The rest of the lessons were spent explaining the ideas behind the new techniques I was learning. The rate at which he demanded assimilation of his instructions was something that I didn’t anticipate. For example, Mr. Levinson had me learning his new fingerings and bowings for the Koussevitzky Concerto and told me my assignment for the next lesson was to have them down near-perfectly. Some may view this pedagogical approach as harsh or un realistic but it motivated me to rise to the occasion. I made more tangible progress in those two weeks than I had in the last two months.
After I returned home in August of 2014 I began to prepare for my junior recital. After I gave the recital I was impressed with how fast I had learned the repertoire and at how high my level of performance was. I attribute this success, in large part to my time spent working on this project. Additionally, I have taught the principles of Eugene Levinson’s technical approach to my students and have seen vast improvements in their playing.