Ya hace varias semanas se venia hablando de esto y no se sabia nada... por fin lei la noticia
Bassist wins top Berlin gig
A YOUNG Australian double-bassist has beaten some of the world's
most talented players to become principal bass with the Berlin
Philharmonic Orchestra.
Matthew McDonald, 30, is the first Australian to win a principal
role with the prestigious orchestra after surviving three rounds of
auditions.
He replaces one of his mentors, Germany's leading double bass
player Klaus Stoll, who is retiring at the age of 65.
"I'm wobbly-kneed. I can't believe it," McDonald said from
Berlin. "Their bass section is the best there is. They play
orchestral music with the passion and intensity of chamber or solo
music."
As principal bass, he will lead the section and play any double
bass solos. The appointment places him above another of his
teachers, Esko Laine, who supervised McDonald during his soloist
diploma.
"Esko is really happy for me. On the same day I got the job, he
was promoted to assistant principal, so we'll be sitting on the
same bench," McDonald said.
McDonald, from Canberra, began his musical career when he was
six as a reluctant violin player. At 15, he discovered the double
bass and fell in love with "the low mellow tone of it".
"I loved its size and shape and its role in the orchestra -
rumbling away underneath rather than squeaking away on top," he
said.
Inspired by double bass jazz legends, he formed a punk band with
mates, but his aptitude for classical music sidelined his ambition
to be a rock star. After graduating from the Sydney Conservatorium
of Music, he accepted a scholarship to study at Germany's Karajan
Academy, the orchestral school for the Berlin Philharmonic. He has
lived in Europe for the past eight years, playing with the Danish
Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Ensemble Modern and the Deutsches
Symphonie-Orchester Berlin.
"Sometimes in a karaoke bar I still have fantasies of being a
rock star, but after playing with some of the best orchestras in
Europe, I think I've moved on from that dream."
Fuente
Matthew McDonald wurde 1977 in Canberra (Australien) geboren. Mit 15 Jahren begann er Kontrabass zu spielen und studierte sein Instrument später an der Canberra School of Music sowie am Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Im Jahr 2000 wurde er Stipendiat der Karajan-Akademie der Berliner Philharmoniker, wo er bei Klaus Stoll studierte. Danach nahm er eine Stelle als stellvertretender Solo-Kontrabassist im Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra an, doch bereits 2002 zog es ihn zurück nach Berlin, wo er sein Konzertexamen bei Prof. Esko Laine an der Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler ablegte.
2003 wurde Matthew McDonald Kontrabassist im Ensemble Modern. In den drei Jahren seiner Beteiligung an dem Ensemble für zeitgenössische Musik arbeitete er nicht nur mit vielen bedeutenden Komponisten – wie György Kurtág, George Benjamin, Steve Reich, Oliver Knussen, Thomas Ades und Helmut Lachenmann – zusammen, sondern lernte auch seine Frau, die Bratschistin Susan Knight, kennen. 2006 verließ er das Ensemble zu Gunsten einer Solo-Stelle beim Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin.
Auch danach erhielt er sich sein Interesse für die Kammermusik, so führte er György Kurtags ›Lichtenberg-Lieder‹ mit der Darstellerin Salome Kammer auf Schloss Neuhardenberg auf. Seit der Spielzeit 2007|2008 ist er Solo-Kontrabassist im Deutschen Symphonie-Orchester Berlin.
Fuente
