Heather Miller Lardin

BAROQUE BASS SPECIALIST

Heather Miller Lardin is an early music upright bass specialist based in Philadelphia, USA. She is the principal bassist of the Handel and Haydn Society and director of the Temple University Early Music Ensemble. Since graduating from the Curtis Institute of Music, Heather has dedicated herself to historical performance practice, and went on to achieve a DMA (Doctor of Musical Arts) in Historical Performance Practice from Cornell University.

Heather also regularly performs with the Philadelphia Bach Collegium, Brandywine Baroque, Tempesta di Mare, and co-directs Night Music, a Philadelphia-based period instrument chamber ensemble. Night Music’s debut recording “Music for a Viennese Salon” was released by Avie Records in August 2020.

Additionally, Heather has over 25 years teaching experience in her private studio, and also serves on the faculties of the Amherst Early Music Festival and the Curtis Young Artists Summer Program.

Heather Miller Lardin performs on various historical instruments, including a Viennese violone after Stadlmann, ca. 1748 (Oskar Kappelmeyer, 2013), a violone in G after Busch, ca. 1630 (John Pringle, 1993) and a Baroque double bass after Maggini, ca.1620 (Thomas Andres Wolf, 2019).

In 2023, Heather joined the DDB faculty with her first full-length course dedicated to early music and continuo playing on the double bass, Baroque Double Bass.

“Every musical gesture you play has a purpose: to express an emotion you are feeling to your listener.”

— Heather Miller Lardin

Hear Heather in action

Find out about Heather’s new course and her historical instrument in this interview. There’s also a brilliant performance from the course by Heather’s ensemble at 10:30!

Take a look at this preview lesson from the course, ‘How to Reduce a Bass Line’.

Baroque Double Bass by Heather Miller Lardin

Baroque Double Bass is a course designed to teach you all about double bass playing in early music, written and presented by the renowned early music specialist, Heather Miller Lardin. The course comprises 43 videos over 3.5 hours and covers a wide range of topics on Baroque double bass.

Heather is joined in many of the lessons by her fantastic live Baroque trio (harpsichord and Baroque cello) who play a range of early music repertoire including pieces by Bach, Handel, Corelli, and Vivaldi.

Detailed transcriptions of Heather Miller Lardin’s musical demonstrations are also included in the course. There are 39 pages of sheet music, so you will have everything you need to practice at home!