Masters of Bass 2025

Masters of Bass – 08. November 2025, 20 Uhr – Stadtsaal Burghausen

The crowning highlight of the Bavarian Bass Days is the “Masters of Bass” concert – this year for the first time in Burghausen Town Hall.

In an incredibly exciting blend of musicians and styles, the “Masters of Bass” concert, featuring the most outstanding and exceptional bassists of our time, showcases the enormous range of the double bass and electric bass instruments.

The now legendary “Bavarian Big Bass Orchestra” will open the evening with a spectacular composition for this extraordinary ensemble of over 40 bassists.

Musicians performing this evening are:

Dominik Wagner, born in Vienna, is one of the most internationally successful double bass soloists. Dominik Wagner has been a professor of double bass at the Würzburg University of Music since 2023 and a professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna since 2024. He regularly gives concerts and masterclasses in Europe and the USA, at institutions such as the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, the Julliard School New York, and UNT Texas. He is a scholarship holder of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation, a winner of ECHO and Opus Klassik awards, and has also won prizes in almost every double bass competition. In 2021, his first solo CD, “Giovanni Bottesini – Revolution of Bass,” was released on the Berlin Classics label. Since then, he has released two more CDs on the same label: “Chapters – A Double Bass Story”

Luis Cojal, born in Havana, Cuba, released his first solo album, “CANTO A LOS ANCESTROS,” in 2014, on which he combined voice and double bass for the first time to celebrate his Afro-Cuban roots. In 2015, he founded and directed the Afará Ancestors Project with musicians from Mali and Cuba, with whom he released the album “Ilé Mi” (2017, Slow Walk Music). In 2019, he founded his own label, “Two Sounds.” The project “SOUNDSCAPES OF THE SOUL,” created in the same year, showcases all the technical and sonic possibilities of the instrument and his voice, while revealing his influences: jazz, Cuban and Afro-Cuban pop music, classical music, contemporary music, and world music.

Giuseppe Bassi (born in Bari, Italy) – double bassist, composer, author, and documentarian – is one of the most active Italian jazz musicians internationally. He has collaborated with world-renowned artists such as Avishai Cohen, Ute Lemper, Lew Tabackin, Don Friedman, and David Liebman and performed at the world’s most important festivals. Specializing in jazz, soul-funk, and free improvisation, he distinguished himself early on as a composer and leader of original projects.

Samar Hafez is a renowned double bassist who has made a name for herself through her diverse career in orchestral and chamber music. Born and raised in Egypt, her path led her to the Barenboim Said Academy in Berlin. In her career to date, she has held important roles in Egyptian orchestras and was principal double bass player with both the Cairo Opera Orchestra and the Cairo Symphony Orchestra. International performances, including tours with the West Eastern Divan Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Barenboim, have taken her far beyond Egypt’s borders. For her outstanding performances, Samar Hafez was honored with the Egyptian Incentive Award in 2021.

Thomas Hartmann has been the pianist at the Bavarian Bass Days for many years. Over the years, he has played with the world’s best bassists and has also acted as an accompanist at the Bavarian Bass Days courses. He will accompany the evening on the grand piano.

Double bassist and organizer Claus Freudenstein will enrich the concert on bass, along with other surprise guests.