Featuring the music of

the Baroque Composer

J. S. Bach

Dave has been playing bass for nearly 25 years. Since the early 1990's, he has devoted much of his musical life to the music of the Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach, starting on the Six Solo Cello Suites and then shortly thereafter, the Six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin. Dave has performed four complete works at four solo bass shows sharing the bill with Michael Manring, Jean Baudin, Jeff Schmidt, Edo Castro, and other noteable Bay Area bassists. Dave's 7-string electric bass was custom made by Hanewinckel Guitars so that more Bach works could be played without requiring any transposition of phrases for adaptation to this instrument. All of Dave's solo Bach works are played nearly exactly, though transposed by octaves down to the lowest playable range.

Kelly Back was born and raised in the bootheel of Missouri. More Mississippi delta than midwestern cornfields, Kelly grew up hearing country, blues, and plenty of southern rock. Soon he started exploring the worlds of fusion and jazz and his course was set. After studying music at a few different schools Kelly decided it was time to get out and get some real playing experience. A year after playing clubs he headed to Nashville...to play more clubs. Also around this time Kelly befriended musical virtuoso Shawn Lane. Shawn opened up Kelly's eyes to many different musical cultures and pushed him to develop his own musical path. Now living in the Bay Area, Kelly splits his time between (unpronounceable), a blues band, and trying to play as much music as possible. Kelly, a fellow Bach fanatic, has also been working on many solo Bach works on the electric guitar.

Born and raised in Innsbruck, Austria, Ariane has been musically active (Orff, piano, recorder) since a very early age. She grew up being exposed to much Baroque and Classical music. Her Grandfather was a conductor and instilled in her the love particularly for Johann Sebastian Bach. Formal Jazz Bass studies at several Universities brought her to the US in 1998 as she received a scholarship from the University of Vienna in Austria to the University of Miami. She now lives in Northern California. Ariane has played in countless bands and projects in Europe and the US. preferring eclectic styles she particularly enjoyed playing with bands such as the 'Mozartband' (a fusion of funk, rock and Mozart feat. members of the Viennese Philharmonic) or the Celtic Rock Band Tempest, who she toured with for three years. She is working on a bass solo project as well as her own album, which combines Celtic, African, Bluegrass and European Folk music with Rock and orchestral elements. Ariane is a passionate teacher of various instruments as well as rock camps and seminars. She calls Victor Wooten, Steve Bailey, Chuck Rainey and Kai Eckhart her mentors, who have shared with her countless jewels about music, teaching and life. Today as a bassplayer, Ariane is still very much influenced by Bach's counterpoint. Bach continues to inspire her in many ways.

In addition to performing solo works, Dave, Kelly and Ariane will also play some Bach duets.