B.S. South Florida
M.M. South Florida
D.M.A. Miami (FL)
Dr. James Bass conducts the University Chorale, Collegiate Singers, Concert Choir and Grand Chorus. Previously on the faculty at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, his conducting experience includes chamber choirs, women’s choruses, mixed-voice choirs, symphony orchestras, string orchestras, and string chamber ensembles. He conducted choral ensembles at the University of Central Florida and the University of Miami as well as the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay. He served as director of choral and orchestral activities at Howard W. Blake High School for the Performing Arts in Tampa and was the choral director and head cantor at Holy Protection Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Dover, Florida. Since 2000 he has been a conductor of the Tampa Bay Youth Orchestra.
A sampling of the choral masterworks he has prepared include Mahler’s Second Symphony (“The Resurrection”), Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Verdi’s Requiem, Orff’s Carmina Burana, and Mozart’s Requiem. As a bass soloist, he has sung in the Fauré Requiem, Schubert’s Mass in G and Mass in E-flat, Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem and numerous Cantatas by Bach.
He was one of twenty singers selected through international audition to perform with Bach expert Ton Koopman in Carnegie Hall and was an auditioned member of Robert Shaw’s workshop choir at Carnegie. He is a guest clinician for honor choirs and orchestras, and an adjudicator for choral and solo/ensemble festivals. He is a member of ACDA, MENC, the American Symphony Orchestra League, Pi Kappa Lambda, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. |
