Paul Sharpe

Double bass faculty Paul Sharpe enjoys teaching all levels of student, whether it is starting instruction with young students and instilling them with good playing habits from the start or with an already well-developed graduate student that he can refine into something great. Sharpe pulls from his extensive performance career while teaching which includes countless performances with orchestras, quartets and as a member the strings duo Low and Lower.

I work very hard to maintain each particular student’s individuality as an artist. A bassist’s sound should be their own – individual, effortless, an expression of their personality.

Credentials

• Principal Bass of the Winston-Salem Symphony and Piedmont Opera
• Frequent guest principal and assistant principal bass of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra in South Carolina
• Member of the Arizona MusicFest double bass section
• Internationally active chamber musician with recent appearances at the International Chamber Music Academy of Southern Germany; Villa Musica (Germany); and Orfeo Music Festival (Italy); and Anchorage Chamber Music Festival
• Former Professor of Double Bass at Texas Tech University, Adjunct Faculty at University of North Texas, and Instructor at Augustana College and the Preucil School of Music in Iowa City

Career Highlights

• Performed as principal bass under Roger Norrington, and as a section bassist under Andre Previn, Seiji Ozawa and in Leonard Bernstein’s second to last concert
• As a 17-year-old Alaskan, he attended his first important music camp at the National Music Camp in Interlochen, MI and was principal bass of the World Youth Symphony Orchestra for seven of the eight weeks
• At 20-years-old of age, Sharpe performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Berlioz' Requiem at Tanglewood, performed as principal bass of the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra under Roger Norrington, and performed in Leonard Bernstein's second to last concert
• At 21-years-old he earned his first job, playing assistant principal bass of the Quad Cities Symphony Orchestra and teaching double bass at Augustana College
• At 26-year-old he won his first position at a large research university, Texas Tech University, and was named principal bass of the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra
• Performed with orchestras all over the nation and the world as soloist – from Brazil, to Alaska, to Texas and with the Winston-Salem Symphony and Boise Philharmonic to perform "Katabasis" written for cello/bass duo Low and Lower, by Lawrence Dillon
• Celebrated the 10^th Anniversary of the Bad Boyz of Double Bass Quartet at the International Society of Bassists Convention in Colorado

Awards, Recognitions and Honors

• Fellowships to study and perform at Tanglewood Music Center in 1990, Aspen Music Festival in 1996, Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan from 1992-1993, and the Festival Dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy, in 1995
• Winner of the E. Nakamichi Double Bass Concerto Competition at Aspen Music Festival, 1996
• Third Prize in the International Society of Bassists Solo Competition, 1997

Organizations

• International Society of Bassists
• Suzuki Double Bass Committee