Proposals — Overview / Guidelines

History in the Making

I have always loved looking back on our past conventions and thinking about all the great artists and teachers who have shaped and continue to influence our future as bassists. And I think about that 14 year-old in our young bassists program who might become the 2035 headliner!

Submit a proposal to be a presenter at the ISB 2025 Convention!

We are pleased to invite you to submit a proposal to present at the ISB 2025 Convention. Your proposal may be for either the general convention schedule, and/or the ISB Young Bassists Program (ages 8-18). The convention will take place on the campus of Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida, from Monday, June 2, 2025, through Saturday, June 7, 2025. We anticipate over 1,000 bassists, exhibitors, collaborative musicians, family members, and guests from around the world to attend the concerts, seminars, workshops, lecture-demonstrations, panel discussions, masterclasses, exhibits, Young Bassists Program, and ensembles for non-professional bassists.

In addition to the convention, the ISB will be holding competitions on Monday, June 2, 2025 and Tuesday, June 3, 2025 in solo, jazz, orchestral, and young bassist performance, as well as the tenth biennial ISB Maker's Competition.

As a non-profit organization that puts all revenues back to work for our membership, we are unable to reimburse travel expenses. Additionally, we do not pay appearance fees to any bassists — one of the ISB's long held and guiding principles. We are grateful for the many presenters over the years who have donated their time, travel, and talent as a way of giving back to the worldwide bass community. Presenters do receive a complimentary convention registration for the week, plus badges for their non-bass playing guests and family members at no charge.

We expect to receive a large number of proposals for the ISB 2025 Convention, and we will make every effort to accommodate as many presenters as possible. Typically, there are many more submissions than there are slots, so it is not always possible to accept every proposal in the first draft of the schedule. We do maintain a standby list to fill in when there are cancellations. You might also consider submitting a joint presentation with a fellow bassist. If you would like to research past presentation topics, go to the Online Resource Library, where you can click on and view searchable PDFs of convention programs going back to the 1980s.

If you are interested in appearing at the ISB 2025 Convention, please complete the online proposal form no later than Wednesday, May 15, 2024. We hope to send out acceptance and stand-by letters by Thursday, August 15, 2024, and that we'll be seeing you next June at the College of Music in the Florida State University!

Sincerely,
Sandor Ostlund
ISB President-Elect
Chair, ISB 2025 Convention

Suggested Topics / Themes

• Recitals, masterclasses, ensembles
• Pedagogy, practice strategies, teaching the bass to non-bassist classroom string teachers
• Technique, warm-ups
• Mind-body, yoga, Alexander technique
• Career development and advice, community engagement strategies, the business of music
• Auditions, excerpts
• Early music, musicology, research
• World music and its connection to cultures
• Improvisation, new music, meaning of music
• Electronic applications, theater pieces
• Alternate tunings

Guidelines / Getting Started

Please read guidelines completely before starting your proposal.

Use the Start a Proposal / Manage My Proposals link at the bottom to view any proposals you've already started or to start a new proposal.

If you'd like to start collecting what you'll need as you enter your proposal, here are some guidelines. You'll be able to enter your Collaborating Performers / Participants (if applicable), upload any required files, and edit your proposal right up until you submit it.

Please have the following required information ready before you begin your submission:

1. Title and description of your proposed event
2. A sense of who your audience is and how you would categorize your proposal
3. Outline of your event, or the proposed program if a recital, ready to upload as a document (.PDF or .DOC), The event outline will convey in a few points what you will share during the event.
4. Links to audio or video examples of your work, if applicable (optional, not required)
5. Technical and musical needs for your presentation
6. Which days (Tuesday-Saturday, June 3-7, 2025) you would be available to present
7. One reference for someone who supports your proposal, name/contact info

If you are submitting for yourself, please also have this information ready:

1. Your preferred contact info
2. Headshot image ready to upload

If you are submitting for a group or ensemble, please also have the following required information ready:

1. Your contact info for group representative
2. Name, email address, and instrument for each member of your group
3. Short description of the group and bio (optional) for each member of your group

We will also ask if you would like to be considered as a judge for one of our competitions (Monday, June 2).

Regarding those Related Files:

1. Photo — all proposals are required to upload a photo that will be used on the website and in the convention program. Your photo can be a JPG, JPEG, or TIFF image, and it should be less than 15 MB. A photo is required before you can finalize and submit your proposal.
2. Stage Setup — if you have a stage setup diagram, you may upload this in PDF, Word document, or PowerPoint format. It should be less than 15 MB.
3. Audio Files — you may provide URLs to any sort of file sharing service including (but not limited to) Dropbox, Google Drive, YouTube, Vimeo, etc. Files should not require any special software to listen to. MP3 files or a streaming video are preferred.
4. Recital Program — A recital program is required for Recital proposals before you can finalize and submit your proposal. It should be a Word document up to 15 MB. Upload your 50 minute recital program — a list of works you'll be performing including composer information, in order of performance. Note any premieres, dedications, and / or acknowledgements. You can download the Recital Program Template here so you'll have it ready when you get to that step. Please use this Word document to create your Recital Program.

In order for your proposal to be considered, you must FINISH AND SUBMIT the proposal. Proposals that have been started but not submitted using the FINISH AND SUBMIT link on the Proposals Management page will NOT be considered, so please do not forget this important step.

If you are having any problems submitting your proposal, please send screenshots of the error messages and text highlighted in red in your submission and email to .