UMN Bass Day

Praised for her “expressive and captivating performance” (GRAMMY.com), bassist Kathryn Schulmeister brings radiant energy to her creative musical practice ranging from classical to experimental.  With a fearless curiosity for collaborative environments, Kathryn’s enthusiasm for seeking opportunities to integrate improvisation, movement and theatre into her creative practice have led her to thrive as an active performer in festivals and venues around the world.  

Kathryn is a member of several contemporary music ensembles including the renowned Australian ELISION Ensemble, Fonema Consort (NYC), and the Echoi Ensemble (LA). She has performed as a guest artist with various adventurous international ensembles such as Klangforum Wien, Ensemble MusikFabrik, Delirium Musicum, Ensemble Dal Niente, and Ensemble Vertixe Sonora.

Equally passionate and experienced as an orchestral musician, Kathryn served as a core member of the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra for three consecutive seasons from 2014-2017 and has performed with the Ojai Festival Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony, New West Symphony, California Chamber Orchestra, Lucerne Festival Alumni Orchestra, Pacific Lyric Opera, Maui Chamber Orchestra, and Hawaii Opera Theater.

 Kathryn received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Contemporary Music Performance from the University of California San Diego, Master of Music degree from McGill University, and Bachelor of Music degree from the New England Conservatory of Music.

In Fall 2023, Kathryn joined the faculty of the University of the Pacific Conservatory of Music as Assistant Professor of Practice in String Bass.

photo credit: Tracy Wright Corvo

Anthony Cox is internationally renowned arranger, composer, performer, recording artist and educator with extensive experience working across musical genres in traditional and contemporary interdisciplinary musical collaborations and settings.

 Anthony Cox’s career has spanned over 30 years encompassing music education, composition, and performance that include an extensive list of collaborations, performances, and recordings with notable artists in the field of jazz.

The list includes Sam Rivers, Joe Lovano, Geri Allen, Kenny Wheeler, Ed Blackwell, Billy Higgins, John Scofield, The NDR Big Band, Dino Saluzzi, and Henry Threadgill.

photo credit: Jennifer DeJonghe

Kyle Motl is a bassist, composer, and improviser described as “spectacularly adventurous and dynamic,” whose playing is noted for both “iridescent delicacy as well as abrasive force” (The Wire). A frequent soloist, his performances “promise to change us by revealing things we could never have imagined” (Free Jazz Collective). Kyle is Assistant Professor of bass and contemporary music at University of Minnesota Twin Cities.

As a composer and bandleader, Kyle’s ensemble music has been praised for its “speculative, many-layered evolution of imagination,” (Free Jazz Collective) and for “constantly confounding expectation” (Jazz da Gama). Treesearch, with violinist Keir GoGwilt, brings together chamber music, jazz, and improvised excursions in “its own brand of in-the-moment invention, mingling rich tones, rhapsodic gestures, and companionable jousts” (The New Yorker). Kyle makes music in collaborative trios with Anthony Davis and Kjell Nordeson (Vertical Motion, 2023 Astral Spirits) and with Dan Clucas and Nathan Hubbard (Daydream and Halting, 2022 FMR).  2026 sees the release of Enantiodromias, a collaborative piano trio with Eli Wallace and Nick Neuberg. Other ongoing collaborations include work with musicians including Earl Howard, Carlos Dominguez, Niloufar Shiri, and Wilfrido Terrazas. 

Kyle works regularly with both emerging and established composers and champions new works for the bass. He has performed with ensembles including International Contemporary Ensemble and Ghost Ensemble. His 2022 solo record, Hydra Nightingale, consists of solo premieres by Caroline Louise Miller, Anqi Liu, Jessie Cox, and Asher Tobin Chodos.

Kyle holds a DMA from UC San Diego, where he studied with Mark Dresser and Anthony Davis, an MM from Florida International University, and a BM from Florida Atlantic University. His book, Bells Plucked From Air, sheds light on harmonic techniques for the double bass.

photo credit: Peter Gannushkin