- This event has passed.
Tucson Bass Jam
January 18 @ 12:30 pm – 6:00 pm
Tucson Bass Jam 2026
University of Arizona
School of Music
1017 N. Olive Road
Sunday, January 18th, 2026
12:30 – 6 PM
Directors
Faculty Director: Dr. Philip Alejo, University of Arizona (palejo@arizona.edu)
Lead Teachers: Dr. Kelsey Nussbaum and Lisa Brown
Guest Artist: David Murray, Butler University (https://www.icomusic.org/team/david-murray/)
The Tucson Bass Jam is an ASTA-sponsored clinic for beginning, intermediate, and advanced double bass students, music educators, and community bass players of any age from Southern Arizona. Attendees will participate in workshops, rehearse as a bass orchestra, and give an informal performance at the end of the day.
As part of the 2026 Bass Jam, we will create a program designed for the classroom teacher in mind. Dr. Kelsey Nussbaum will facilitate breakout sessions for non-bass playing orchestra teachers to learn how to better support and differentiate for their bass students while also gaining hands-on bass practice. Please bring an instrument from your school to use during the Tucson Bass Jam. If you have questions about the teacher workshop element, please reach out to Kelsey Nussbaum at knuss@arizona.edu.
Registration and Fees
The registration fee per student for the Tucson Bass Jam is $10. Students will need to bring their own instruments, bows, and endpin stopper. Parents, teachers, or other chaperones may accompany their students to Tucson Bass Jam free of charge. We request that any student 13 or under be accompanied by a parent, guardian, or adult chaperone during the event. Fee waivers are available: please contact Dr. Alejo at palejo@arizona.edu for more information.
Registration: Participants should visit and register on the AZ-ASTA website. Registration on the day of the event will be possible, but not recommended.
Experience Level Assignments
Using the descriptions below, consult with your teacher to determine your performance level. Participants will be divided into four levels.
Level 1: Advanced Bassists able to perform in upper positions and read tenor clef.
Level 2: Bassists comfortable with all positions to first-octave harmonic.
Level 3: Bassists comfortable with the notes in first, second, and third positions.
Level 4: Bassists with an understanding of first and half position notes.
Schedule
| 12:00 | Arrival and registration |
| 12:30 | Introduction, bass orchestra rehearsal |
| 1:30 | Technique class, Teacher class |
| 2:15 | Break |
| 2:30 | Masterclass with Guest Artist |
| 3:30 | Special class with Guest Artist; YB Breakout Rehearsal |
| 4:30 | Bass orchestra run-through |
| 4:45 | Break |
| 5:00 | Final Performance |
Guest Artist Biography
David Murray has an international reputation as a solo bassist and teacher. He is currently Professor of Bass and Director of the School of Music at Butler University in Indianapolis and Principal Bassist of the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra. He also plays as Principal Bassist with Sinfonia da Camera in Urbana, Illinois, and at the Bear Valley Music Festival in northern California. Before coming to Indianapolis, David was Instructor of Bass at West Texas A&M University and principal with the Amarillo Symphony. He has been a member of the Dallas Chamber Orchestra and toured twice with the Irish Chamber Orchestra.
David’s first private teacher was bass virtuoso Gary Karr, with whom he studied in high school in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and at the Hartt Music School, University of Hartford, in Connecticut. Summers were spent at Tanglewood and the Aspen Music Festival, where he worked with Stuart Sankey. At Aspen, he won the 1981 concerto competition. In Los Angeles in1988 he won the International Society of Bassists (ISB) Solo Competition, the first prize being a solo debut at Carnegie Hall. David has made solo appearances, both in recital and with orchestra, and given clinics and masterclasses throughout the United States, his native Canada, and in South Korea, Brazil, Israel, Scotland, France, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Holland.
He has performed at several summer chamber music festivals including Scotia Festival, Killington, and Cape May. In June, 2001, David hosted the ISB convention at Butler University for 800 bassists from 27 countries and is currently a Past-President of the ISB. He has been published in the ISB journal, Double Bassist magazine, the Suzuki Association of America journal, and American String Teachers journal. He has recorded three solo CD’s (most recently in 2012), a duo CD with bassist Diana Gannett, is a founding member of the bass quartet Bad Boys of Bass with whom he released a CD in 2006, and he released a DVD of theater music in the spring of 2003.
Most recently he was awarded the ISB’s Special Recognition Award for Solo Performance.