Interview with Marianne Schofield

This video features one of the contemporary music world’s most exciting bass players, Marianne Schofield. She is a founder member of the groundbreaking ensemble, The Hermes Experiment, which comprises harp, clarinet, soprano voice and double bass. She performs as a soloist and chamber musician with many London-based contemporary organisations, including as an artistic board member of Riot Ensemble.

As a freelance orchestral double bass player, Marianne has performed with many of the Uk’s finest orchestras, including Aurora Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, Britten Sinfonia, English Chamber Orchestra, English National Opera, London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In the October 2022 edition of the Strad Magazine, she was featured in the article, ‘Ones to Watch’, which features five incredible double bassists who are committed to promoting and performing new music on the double bass.

Our discussion covers Marianne’s musical origins, playing symphonic music from memory, extended techniques, commissioning new music, her influences and teachers, and much more. There’s also time for a wonderful performance of an excerpt from Draw The Line by Ayanna Witter-Johnson (published by Faber Music).

I hope you enjoy this video with Marianne Schofield and her stunning solo performance! As usual, we have provided links below to the people referenced in our conversation. There are also behind-the-scenes photos from the session; scroll down to check them out.

Timecodes

00:00 Introduction
01:23 Current projects
01:50 Commissioning new music
02:35 Arranging for double bass
04:00 Improvising
06:00 Origins
06:54 Inspiring contemporary artists
07:50 Teachers
09:49 Playing orchestral music from memory
13:15 Extended techniques
15:30 Current composers
17:42 Instrument
19:39 Performance of Draw the Line