A Little Song for Teppo was composed for Teppo-Fest 2016, a series of concerts and workshops in Somerset (UK) to celebrate the 75th birthday of the legendary composer-bassist Teppo Hauta-aho. The music is wonderfully simple and effective, always an audience favourite, and uses a limited number of notes to create a piece which is distinctive and beautifully ethereal.
This edition includes two versions of the same piece - the original one for unaccompanied double bass, where the melody is hummed by the performer, alongside a more extended version for two double basses.
Katrien Bos writes: 'I am lucky to have met Teppo Hauta-aho several times and I love his warm, creative and musical character and also his great sense of humour. For that reason, it wasn't difficult for me to be inspired to compose a piece for him - it came to me from heaven and for me it reflects his great personality. Teppo's music is always inventive and he uses many ways of playing the double bass. In my compositions I like to explore the instrument in the same way.'
A Little Song for Teppo was premiered by the composer on 6 September 2015 in Goirle (Netherlands) and received its UK premiere on Saturday 14 May 2016 at the Silk Mill, Frome (Somerset), as part of Teppo-Fest 2016. The double bass duet version was premiered on 22 June 2016 at Bristol Plays Music (Bristol, UK) by David Heyes and Ben Groenevelt.
Katrien Bos was born in the Netherlands in 1978. After many happy years studying the violin, the 16 year-old Katrien found her great love - the double bass. She studied classical double bass at the Rotterdam Conservatoire with Hans Krul and Peter Leerdam, and became passionate about the Argentinian tango. She also followed courses in folk and world music, klezmer, jazz and improvisation, and like to experiment with the extraordinary possibilities of the double bass. In 2002 she moved to Belgium where she now lives and works.
For many years Katrien has played in bands such as We-nun Henk (Dutch folk music), Quinteto ASTOR (Argentinian tango), Balacordes (balfolk), and her own solo project Bos 'n' bass (where she plays her own compositions with double bass, loopstation, violin, toy piano and more) and many others. She enjoys composing, which is inspired by the European folk repertoire, Argentinian tango and experimenting with modern sounds.
