Corey Schutzer

My musical journey has been exciting and unexpected in equal measure. I started by learning the trumpet in a public school music program, after an obsession with the Beatles prompted an earlier attempt to teach myself guitar. Inspiration to pick up the bass came from an influential teacher in the middle school jazz band, and soon after I was playing double bass in the school orchestra.
 
Private lessons with Dennis Masuzzo in high school helped to develop my technique and lead me into the world of classical music, and subsequently I was accepted into the Pre-College division at The Juilliard School. I received both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from Juilliard, studying with Albert Laszlo and Timothy Cobb. During my time there I was a finalist in the concerto competition, a Co-Principal of the Juilliard Orchestra, and participated in the annual ChamberFest.
 
In an effort to satisfy a diverse musical palette, I am grateful to have had performance opportunities around the world including the complete Brandenburg Concertos at Bargemusic, chamber music and gypsy improvisation at the Thy Chamber Music Festival in Denmark, and the orchestras of the Spoleto Festival USA, Schleswig-Holstein, and Aspen Music Festivals. I regularly perform on both upright and electric bass in a wide variety of orchestral, chamber, solo, jazz, musical theater, and cabaret venues throughout New York, including with the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, with the Finger Lakes Chamber Music Festival, and as half of the bass duo Low Bros. I have been a sub for the Broadway productions of Aladdin, West Side Story, Oklahoma!, Anastasia, Miss Saigon, Gigi, and On the 20th Century. I have held bass chairs for both the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular and the New York Spectacular, as well as the Off-Broadway revivals of Jonathan Larson's Tick, Tick...Boom!, Stephen Sondheim's Pacific Overtures, and the world premiere production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Unmasked at the Paper Mill Playhouse.

My passion for sharing music extends beyond my performances – I am deeply committed to teaching, in the hope that others will be as inspired as I am by the arts to discover their innermost selves and have an opportunity to say something to the world. In addition to teaching bass at the Collegiate School, I maintain a private teaching studio in the New York – Metropolitan area, and frequently present workshops and masterclasses in nearby schools.

 

I am very lucky to have two extremely high quality instruments; a double bass made in 2009 by Barnabás Rácz, and an XJ-1T model electric bass by Xotic Guitars, which I proudly endorse. I use Pirastro strings on my upright basses.