DUNCAN McTIER


Since winning the 1982 Isle of Man International Double Bass Competition, Duncan McTier has established a reputation as one of the world’s foremost double bass soloists and teachers. Duncan McTier obtained a degree in mathematics at Bristol University before joining the BBC Symphony Orchestra. After seven years as principal bass of the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, he returned to England to concentrate on a career as soloist, chamber musician and teacher. Duncan McTier has appeared as soloist in more than twenty countries, with many leading orchestras, including the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, English and Scottish Chamber Orchestras, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Concertgebouw and Lausanne Chamber Orchestras with conducters like Matthias Bamert, Andrew Litton, Sergiu Comissiona, Paavo Järvi and Heinrich Schiff. He has made more than fifty solo recordings for radio, television and record companies and his CD “Tarantella” with pianist Kathron Sturrock was described in The Strad as containing “some of the most refined bass playing you are ever likely to hear”. Composers who have written works especially for him include Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Robin Holloway, John Casken, John Hawkins and Gavin Bryars.
Duncan McTier is Professor of Double Bass at the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Züricher Hochschule der Künste in Winterthur and the Escuela Reina Sofia in Madrid. He gives master classes all over the world and holds a summer course at the Academie de Musique in Sion, Switzerland.


SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY

Tarantella pianist Kathron Sturrock (Black Box Records)
Capriccio pianist Kathron Sturrock (Black Box Records)
Sonata pianist Kathron Sturrock (Black Box Records)
Maxwell Davies Strathclyde Concerto No. 7 Scottish Chamber Orchestra (Collins Classics)
Bottesini Grand Duo with Jaap Van Zweden-Violin and the Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam conductor Lev Markiz. (Dino Classics)
Glière Tarantella with Paganini Esemble (Denon)
Bottesini Elegy and Fantasy on Somnambula with the Paganini Ensemble (Denon)

“In the hands of a player as fine as Duncan McTier, the bass has a splendid singing tone and remarkable agility...”
 The Strad