435: Diego Zecharies on inspiration, passion, and balance - a podcast by Jason Heath
from 2017-12-04T10:00
I had such a great time spending a week with Diego at Andrés Martin’s bass festival this fall. Diego is one of the most inspiring double bassists I know, and he's doing great things for the double bass both in Spain and in his home country of Uruguay.
About Diego Zecharies:
Diego Zecharies is a highly dedicated professional musician who has mastered his art globally, branching out as recording artist, professor, soloist, principal bass, producer and pedagogue, born in Montevideo Uruguay, nowadays based in Spain.
Diego began his studies in his hometown, continues in Jerusalem and graduated with the highest qualification in the ÜdK Berlin (University of Arts Berlin) under the guidance of Prof. Rainer Zepperitz, Prof. Klaus Stoll and violin Prof. Ilan Gronich. During his studies, Diego performed as a principal bass at the Mahler Jugend Orchester, the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra. He won the Friczay Stipendium at Deutsche Symphonie Orchester Berlin and played as a substitute with the Rundfunk Symphonie-Orchester Berlin.
Diego served as Principal Bass position in The Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the bandArt Orchestra, Brandenburg Symphoniker, Philharmonie Potsdam, and Sinfonica di Milano. He also is assiduously invited as Principal Bass at the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana (Lugano, Switzerland); the Ensemble Les-Dissonances (Paris) with violinist David Grimal; collaborated with the the Israel Philharmonic; the Jerusalem Chamber Orchestra and the Luzern Festival Orchestra, recording together with Maestro Abbado many concerts for ARTE and for the Deutsche Grammophone.
Diego played chamber music concerts with Emmanuel Ax, Christian Zacharias and Elizabeth Leonskaya, symphonic concerts with world-class conductors such as Mehta, Maazel, Abbado, Nagano, Ashkenazy, Temirkanov, Pappano, Sinopoli, Ozawa, Welzer Möst and soloists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Yuri Bashmet, Anna Sophie Mutter, F.P. Zimmerman, Martha Argerich, Alfred Brendel, Maurizio Pollini, Gordan Nikolic and others, always as Principal Bass.
Diego is Principal Solo Bass in Galicia Symphony Orchestra from the year 2002.
Renowned as a very active and passionate soloist, Diego’s research has brought him to perform some world-premiere material including entire unaccompanied Double Bass recitals, like at the BASS EUROPE Convention in Amsterdam 2014 and ISB World Convention 2015 in Denver (U.S.A) with great appreciation both critics and public.
Diego appeared as soloist with: the Chamber Orchestra of Galicia Symphony; the Camerata of the Ministry of Education and Culture of Montevideo; the Galicia Symphony Orchestra; the OJS of Montevideo, the Orquesta de Baja California,among others and gave the opening unaccompanied Double Bass recital for the UNESCO Chair Culture of Peace and Human Rights under the World Peace Forum 2010.
Diego has given numerous master classes in Europe, South América and South Korea, been assigned as coach on many youth orchestras across Spain and Germany and has recently been appointed as Director of the International Double Bass Festival of Montevideo and Director of the Double-Bass Cathedra of the Uruguayan National Orchestral Training Plan. This cathedra foresees a minimum of 3 seminars with solo recitals and telematic virtual master classes given throughout the year, plus an international festival every 2 years.
In Spain, Diego is the Artistic Director of the “ReSuena Project”, which brings together kids from diverse cultural and social backgrounds, throughout the creation of youth symphony orchestras and choirs all over the city, project originally inspired on Venezuela’s “El Sistema de Orquestas”.
Links to Check Out:
- Diego's website
- Music For Double Bass Solo, Duo And Quintett (new album)
- Montevideo International Double Bass Festival
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