150 Anniversary of Serge Koussevitzky - Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame featuring Matt Hare - doublebass

Matt Hare, DMA, is a prolific musician championing the technical brilliance of the double bass. As a performer/composer, he most recently completed a solo recital of his own pandemic-inspired compositions in a joint effort with the Philosophical Research Society. Next season he will be soloing/premiering his own orchestration of Hayk Arsenyan's Stratum, accompanied by the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia. He will also celebrate the 150th anniversary of Serge Koussevitzky's birth with a program that will include premiers, compositions by Koussevitzky, and works commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation.

As an educator, Dr. Hare is highly sought after to serve as guest clinician at schools all over Southern California. He is currently on the faculty of University of California at Irvine, Irvine Valley College, and Saddleback College.

Dr. Hare is also the Founder/Director of Bass Forward, a non-profit 501c3 that hosts double bass events around Southern California. Bass Forward graciously loaned instruments out to students whose school instruments were unavailable due to the pandemic lockdown.

Selected works will be premiered on April 5th, 2024 in celebration of the 150th anniversary of Serge Koussevitzky's Birth at Winifred Smith Hall, Claire Trevor Schools of the Arts, University of California at Irvine. The concert will include works composed by Koussevitzky, dedicated to him, commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation. Matt Hare will be performing on Koussevitzky's personal instrument, on special loan for this recital. This performance will be presented as a live streaming online concert and broadcasted to multiple streaming platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.

More can be found at: https://music.arts.uci.edu/faculty/matt-hare

Concert Dates

  • April 5th, 2024 in celebration of the 150th anniversary of Serge Koussevitzky's Birth at Winifred Smith Hall, Claire Trevor Schools of the Arts, University of California at Irvine

150 Anniversary of Serge Koussevitzky - Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame featuring Matt Hare

  • Hommage

    Anna Vriend

    This piece explores various extended techniques on double bass, such as “bass drum” and various harmonics performed with the instrument tuned in fifths (instead of the usual fourths) for this concert.

    Anna Vriend won third prize in the VIII International Composition Competition Opus Ignotum. Her works for bass clarinet solo and reed quintet respectively have been published by Alea Publishing. Her pieces for hichiriki, toypiano, Bayan accordion, viola duo and clavichord have been performed on Fifteen Minutes of Fame recently

  • Deep Breath

    Yong Tan

    “Deep Breath” for double bass solo was composed specifically for the “Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame” called for score. It was named “Deep Breath” because it features heavily on the dynamic swell and the extremely low register of the instrument, picturing the irregular and abnormal breath that one might experience when feeling anxious.

    Yong Tan is a Malaysian concert composer, media composer, and producer. Some competitions he won include UITM Piano Trio Composition Competition and Free Hand Malaysian Piano Festival call for score. Yong Tan holds a dual degree in concert composition and media composition from West Chester University of Pennsylvania.

  • Three Sententiae for Double Bass, Op. 358

    Vahan Luder Artinian

    A sententia constitutes a short quotation in music. A set of sententiae constitutes a coherent aggregate in time, the medium of music. A sententia is a seminal musical thought; a set of sententiae, a set of related musical thoughts. This particular set enjoys all these characteristics of senetentiae.

    Vahan Luder Artinian is a largely self-taught Lebanese Armenian composer. He has been interested in composing music ever since the late 1980s. He has created and developed several new forms, including ‘sententia’, ‘stream’, ‘inkling’, ‘transformation’, and ‘conversation’. His main forms are the ‘soliloquy’ and ‘sentenia’. He has composed more than 350 compositions.

  • Flowing Stone and Wrinkled Wood

    Michael Kosch

    FLOWING STONE AND WRINKLED WOOD is based on the work of late-Medieval sculptor Tilman Riemanschneider. His favorite media were sandstone and pinewood. He formed this rigid rock and solid timber into sinuous, fluid figures, imbuing them with a radiant vibrance, their poses evoking musical motion and dance-like gesture.

    Michael Kosch studied music composition with Dennis Kam at the University of Miami, and with Ben Johnston, Salvatore Martirano, and Morgan Powell at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He has written operas, orchestral pieces, chamber music, choral works, and songs. His recent music draws inspiration from Renaissance artists."

  • The Sneak

    Stanley M Hoffman

    With music for contrabass solo, "The Sneak" depicts a big old sneaky guy lurking around in the dark. Spying what he wants to purloin, he makes a go for it and, successful, he scampers away in much the same way in which he first arrived.

    Stanley M. Hoffman (b. 1959, Cleveland, Ohio) holds degrees in Music Composition from Brandeis University (PhD), New England Conservatory of Music (MM) and Boston Conservatory (BM). His music is published by ECS Publishing, Oxford University Press, and Fatrock Ink. Senior Editor at ECS Publishing Group 1998–2021. Freelance editor, composer.

  • CiaccOne

    Carlotta Ferrari

    CiaccOne is a one-minute ciaccona written for Matt Hare's double bass, born out of the fascination for its low, expressive open strings. The composition features a ciaccona bass on open strings and ends with a modal flavour. The dynamic range creates an expressive wave connecting performer and listeners.

    Carlotta Ferrari (1975) is an award-winning Italian composer who has developed a personal language concerned with the blend of past and present. Her compositions have been performed around the world and appear on several CDs. Her research interest lies in contemporary compositional techniques with a modal inspiration.

  • The beginnings of a dialogue?

    David Bohn

    David Bohn received degrees in composition from the University of Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and the University of Illinois. He currently resides in West Allis, Wisconsin, and is the music coordinator at Peace Methodist Church in Brookfield. He is the President of the Wisconsin Alliance for Composers.

  • Harmonic Indeterminacy

    Robert Voisey

    Intrigued by the tuning of this interesting instrument, I created this short experiment to create a sonic exploration between perfect waves and the certain indeterminacy of the turbulence between them.

    Composer/producer Robert Voisey has been described as “mad” by the New York Times and publications around the globe. His work has been heard in more than 40 countries in venues including: London’s Stratford Circus, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; as well as New York’s Carnegie Hall, Tompkins Park, and street windows on 37th street. His work has appeared on TV, radio, off-off broadway productions, movie screenings, bars, and a video installation projected against a 3 story building.

  • Small Gray Landscape

    Rafael de Rioja

    I’ve tried to imagine and create in a short time a piece that develops its expressiveness and as if a nostalgic landscape was being drawn, recreating an image of gray tones and colors that time does not pass by.

    Rafael de Rioja (Huelva, 1998) graduated in Composition at the "Manuel Castillo" Music Conservatory of Seville. Young and restless for knowledge, he completes his training through courses and congresses such as: International Composition Course of Villafranca del Bierzo;LXIII International University Course “Música en Compostela”; Contemporary Music Composition 2021 SGAE Foundation.

  • ARID

    Nantenaina Andriamorasata

    The composition translates in Music the suffering of the earth facing human folly. The planet earth expresses his sorrow: the issue of climate change and many natural disasters, these are signs that the mother earth is not doing well.

    NANTENAINA Andriamorasata is a songwritter – music composer and perfomer from Antananarivo-Madagascar. Web: https://www.clippings.me/vakamiarina

  • Sunseeker

    E.B.Kerr

    “Sunseeker” The joyful struggle of growth: Exploring and augmenting the journey of seeking place in the light.

    Kerr’s emerging compositional practice investigates the space between performer and the ears of the listener, which may also be the ears of the performer. She is particularly interested to engage with the sonic space between performance and perception and the way performance inevitably becomes part of the composition.

  • Pastoral

    ‏‏ Bracha Bdil

    Pastoral is written in a free rubato style as well. The pentatonic collection of notes has a significant part in producing the natural and tranquil atmosphere.

    Bracha Bdil (1988) is an Israeli-British composer, conductor, and pianist, winner of the Prime Minister's Award for Composition (Israel, 2022) and the ACUM Award (2019). Her repertoire spans different mediums including orchestral music, chamber, vocal and electronic music. Bracha's compositions have won several first prizes ;in Israel, China, Germany, Serbia, Belarus, Cuba and more.  And with her composition Yizkerem, for a-cappella choir, she represented Israel at the Asian Composers League Festival, Taiwan (2018). Bracha Bdil is a member of the Israel Composers' League, her works are broadcast on the Israel Radio Voice of Music program and published by the Israel Music Institute and ICL.  Beginning in the fall of 2018, Bracha became the artistic director and chief conductor of the Zmora Women's Orchestra in Jerusalem.

  • Work for solo double bass

    José Jesus de Azevedo Souza

    Inspired by the legacy left by Serge Koussevitsky, this music for Matt Hare for Hare’s appearance for Vox Novus Fifteen – Minutes – of – Fame, dedicated to the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Koussevitsky’s birth, refers to Koussevitsky’s double bass concerto with energetic runs together with exciting leaps exploring the instrument’s range.

    José Jesus de Azevedo Souza studied in England at the Purcell School with a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. He then studied at the Trinity College of Music and the University of Sheffield. His music has since been performed in Europe, Asia, North and South America and the Pacific.

  • a pauper finds his heart

    Joshua Malavé

    A pauper finds his heart is a sixty second piece written for bassist Matt Hare. It is a vignette of an encounter with with a radiant glowing source of light and the celestial glow that comes upon us having touched it.

    Joshua Malave is a composer from Montdale, a small town in the woods of northeastern Pennsylvania. He works as a dance accompanist, a teacher, and as a pianist playing entertainment music. His compositions can be heard around Pittsburgh at house parties, chamber music performances, and orchestra concerts.

  • Every Which Way

    Michael Roll

    I wrote this piece while watching 4 large dogs wander around the house. I thought about how playfully they would walk back and forth looking for pets and scratches. I wanted to channel some of that playful energy into this piece, with the bass repeating this playful, mixed meter melody.

    Michael Roll is a composer for both the stage and concert works. He has had works premiered by Balance Campaign and The Concordia College Symphonic Band, as well as having music incidental music used for plays at The Catholic University of America and Concordia College theater departments.