Four double bassists join forces for BASS-MAS!, an evening of festive tunes, December 3

Malcolm Armstrong, Mark Beaty, Meaghan Williams, and Jeff White are gearing up to play four new commissions at the Jericho Arts Centre

By emily lyth

Malcolm Armstrong

Meaghan Williams. Photo by Jennifer Gauthier

BASS-MASS! takes place at the Jericho Arts Centre on December 3 at 7 pm

GIVEN THE FACT that the double bass is the lowest-pitched instrument in the orchestra, it’s not surprising that all-double-bass groups are practically nonexistent.

Or at least, they used to be. Enter BASS-MAS!—a local quartet composed entirely of classically trained double-bass players. Malcolm Armstrong, Mark Beaty, Meaghan Williams, and Jeff White have joined forces for a special holiday concert to foster community among folks who play the instrument. They’ll also be welcoming some surprise guests to the show: double-bass students of all ages from across B.C. and the Pacific Northwest.

Armstrong has been the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s principal double-bassist since 2019; before then, the Ottawa-born artist played with the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra. Beaty, meanwhile, is a longtime principal with the Vancouver Island Symphony, while Williams is a principal with the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Vancouver Opera Orchestra. White served as principal double bassist of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra for over a decade before moving to Denmark, where he played with the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, and then to Vancouver.

In an interview with Stir last year, Williams shared that “part of the challenge with bass and orchestra is getting the instrument to project over the orchestra.” BASS-MAS! certainly sets those concerns aside—if anything, the epic all-bass quartet will have audiences yearning to hear bass over, well, more bass.

The musicians will play four new holiday-inspired arrangements that they commissioned with funding from the BC Arts Council. One is from fellow double bassist Mark Haney.

“The fates of so many double bassists were sealed when they took home the string section equivalent of Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree and gave it a little love,” Haney shared in a release. “The least I could do is gift these four intrepid low-enders an arrangement of some of the 20th century’s most profound holiday masterworks.”

They may identify as low-enders in larger orchestras, but at the Jericho Arts Centre on December 3, these double-bassists will undoubtedly ascend to musical aristocracy.  

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