2024 Research Competition — Results

Andrew Kohn, chair of the 2024 ISB Research Competition, along with fellow judges Fumi Tomita, Fiona Palmer and Sarah Lahasky, announces the winners of the 2024 competition. There were two divisions for Professionals and Students. The biennial competition is open to all researchers.

Entries, submitted anonymously, are previously unpublished papers reflecting a high quality of scholarship in a wide variety of disciplines relevant to the double bass. Topics may be presented from any number of different perspectives or disciplines, such as historical musicology, classical or jazz performance practice, pedagogy, lutherie, iconography, biography and/or analysis, and may deal with subjects stemming from any period in the instrument's history up to the present.

The grand prize is $500 for each division, publication in the ISB's Online Journal of Bass Research, and an invitation to present the winning research papers at the 2025 ISB Convention, to be held June 2-7 at Florida State University College of Music in Tallahassee.

The winners of the 2024 ISB Research Competition are:

Professional Category

Grand Prize:The Heartbeat of Jazz - The Multifaceted Role of the Jazz Bass through the Eyes of Jazz Architects
By Seungyoung Hong, Potsdam State University of New York

Dr. Seungyoung Hong is Visiting Assistant Professor of Jazz Studies at Potsdam State University of New York's Crane School of Music. A performer, bandleader, composer, arranger, scholar and educator, he has studied with Bill Charlap, Jeff Campbell, Harold Mabern, Bill Dobbins, Mike LeDonne, Steve LaSpina and Christine Jensen, among others. Dr. Hong has shared stages with artists such as Bill Charlap, Cecil McLorin Salvant, Trio da Paz, Joe Lovano, John Pizzarelli and Nancy Marano. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in jazz studies from William Paterson University and holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in jazz studies from the Eastman School of Music.

Student Category

Grand Prize: The Double Bass: Becoming the Foundation of the Orchestra
By Victoria Bakewell, South Miami, Florida

Victoria Bakewell is a DMA student at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami where she studies with Brian Powell. She earned her Master's of Music at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where she studied with Paul Erhard, and her Bachelor's Degree in Music from Concordia College, where she studied with Gregory Hamilton.