Born in Aleppo, Syria into a musical family of six boys and three girls, François Rabbath discovered the double bass at the age of 13 when one of his brothers brought an instrument home and allowed him to experiment with it. When the family moved to Beirut, Lebanon, he found an old copy of Edouard Nanny's “Contrabass Method” in a tailor shop and, with some difficulty since he read neither music nor French, began to teach himself. After nine years of work in Beirut, François saved enough money to move to Paris for a year. He was eager to go to the Paris Conservatory, meet with Monsieur Nanny and show him what he was able to do with the bass. When he applied at the Conservatory, he was disappointed to learn that Nanny had died in 1947. He was also told that auditions were to be held in three days and that he would never have enough time to learn the required pieces. He asked for the music anyway and returned three days later to finish first among the applicants. However, his stay at the Conservatory was a brief one, since it didn't take very long to see that he was not only far ahead of the other students but of the professors as well!
While in Paris he began to earn his living as an accompanist for Jacque Brel, Charles Aznavour, Gilbert Becaud, Michel Legrand and others. In 1963 he made his first of many solo record albums. Although never advertised or promoted, the Phillips album “Bass Ball” became one of the most sought-after recordings of its time.
From 1964 he became active composing much music for movies and the theater. At the same time, he started to play solo recitals, first in France, then throughout Europe. His American debut was in Carnegie Hall in 1975 and included performances of virtuosic solo works and duets with jazz legend Ornette Coleman. He then joined the Paris Opera Orchestra, where he performed with the greatest conductors and singers in the world for 15 years.
In 1978, Rabbath met the American composer-double bassist Frank Proto. In 1980, the Cincinnati Symphony asked Proto to compose a concerto especially for Rabbath. The resulting Concerto No. 2 for Double Bass and Orchestra was premiered by Cincinnati in 1981. Two years later the Houston Symphony asked Proto to write another work especially for Rabbath. The Fantasy for Double Bass and Orchestra was premiered in Houston in 1983. Rabbath has since played the work around the world. He was also the first bassist to record the first five Bach Cello Suites on the double bass at the same pitch as the cello.
After Rabbath’s Nouvelle Technique became available in 1984 many of the greatest bassists of all stripes have embraced the Rabbath Method including: jazz greats Ray Brown, Lynn Seaton and Glenn Moore; soloists Renaud Garcia Fons and Patrick Neher, and the principal bassists of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony and the Paris Opera Orchestra, among others.
In 2004 François Rabbath began collaborating with Ball State University Professor of Double Bass, Hans Sturm. Dr. Sturm had already studied with Rabbath over a five-year period and was inspired by his lessons to develop a pedagogical tool that would help students understand the intricacies of Rabbath’s bow arm. The inspiration came from an article about a golf video game that showed the behind-the-scenes process of creating a virtual Tiger Woods. Sturm’s thought was if this could be done for a golf swing, why not the motion of the bow. This led the development of the DVD entitled Art of the Bow with François Rabbath, a work that utilized the combined resources of the Ball State Biomechanics Lab, Teleplex, and Music Technology programs. This state-of-the-art double-layer DVD is over 3.5 hours in length and features user-selectable camera angles, biomechanics animations, interviews, lecture/demonstrations, and live performance footage. Rabbath is currently working with Sturm on a sequel entitled The Art of the Left Hand.
The importance of François Rabbath to the development of double bass playing can be compared with that of Paganini to the violin. Since the early 1800s when Nicole Paganini established the violin as a virtuoso instrument, solo violinists have practiced the most brilliant of instrumental art. Meanwhile, the development of double bass playing had been seriously neglected. The great and popular 19th century composers did not consider the bass worth their attention and in turn the bass repertoire did not attract potential virtuoso performers with enough genius to change the situation. It demanded an artist with the unique qualities of François Rabbath to break this impasse.
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