Rolf ErdahlFaculty

Rolf Erdahl, double bass, performs widely as a chamber musician and subs for the Minnesota Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Minnesota Opera. Previously Principal Bass of the Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra, Winnipeg Symphony and Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, and Assistant Principal Bass of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra, he has subbed with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and performed with the Breckenridge Music Festival, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic, New World Symphony, Miami Beach Basstet, and White Noise Chamber Players. He has taught bass at the University of Manitoba, Ball State and Wichita State Universities, the Sewanee Music Festival, and the North Carolina Governor's School. He graduated from St. Olaf College, the University of Minnesota, and the Peabody Conservatory. Fulbright and Scandinavian-American Foundation Scholar studies in Norway culminated in his doctoral dissertation on Grieg's music for strings. Eugene Levinson has been his major teacher. He has also studied with Peter Lloyd, Bruce Bransby, Paul Ellison, Hal Robinson, Stuart Sankey, and James Clute.

Dr. Erdahl was invited as a performer and keynote speaker at the 2017 International Edvard Grieg Society Seminar and Workshop "Romantic Piano Meets the Hardanger Fiddle: Edvard Grieg’s Chamber Works and Solo Piano Music." He performed several recitals and school programs around Norway following the conference in his chamber music duo, OboeBass! He has also presented solo recitals and masterclasses across the country, including at conferences of the International Society of Bassists, SEAMUS, Montclair State University, Louisiana State University, Peabody Conservatory, and the Cincinnati Institute of Music. He maintains an active schedule as a freelance chamber and orchestral bassist.

Rolf and his wife, oboist Carrie Vecchione, present oboe/bass duo recitals and educational programs regionally and across the nation as OboeBass! Their efforts have effectively created a new duo literature for oboe and double bass. Their Pages of Music with Rolf and Carrie educational programs link music and children's literature for schools, libraries, senior residences, and bookstores. in 2018, Chamber Music America awarded them a Classical Composition Grant for a new OboeBass! work by acclaimed composer and flutist, Valerie Coleman. They premiered the work in March of 2020, and also presented a live stream concert  including this work on PerformingArts.Live. They frequently perform at conferences of both the Internation Double Reed Society and International Society of bassists, were 2013-14 MPR Artists In Residence (AIR) and presented educational programs in the schools and collaborating in a recording with other MPR Artists in Residence.  They have served as roster artists with Young Audiences of Minnesota, the St Paul Chamber Orchestra's CONNECT Program to the schools, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra's Community Engagement Program, and Minnesota Orchestra's YPSCA. Their debut duo CD, "It Takes Two . . ." was released by Centaur Records. Their most recently released recordings are Monk Fish Tango, music for English horn and bass composed for them by Timothy Goplerud, and Just So Stories for oboe, bass, and narrator, composed and narrated by Sarah Miller. In 2012 they released two recordings featuring compositions of Margi Griebling-Haigh - The Story of Babar the Little Elephant, and the book/CD musical retelling of the Norwegian folktale, Askelad and the Seven Silver Ducks. Awards numerous Arts Tour, Arts Learning, Arts Activites, and Community Arts grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, and grants from the American Composers Forum including a 2006 Encore Grant supporting repeat performances of Andrea Clearfield's Three Songs for Oboe and Double Bass after Poems by Pablo Neruda, 2007 and 2009 Subito Grants in support of recording projects, and a 2007 Jerome Composers Commissioning Program Grant for a new work for oboe and bass by Margaret Griebling-Haigh, Askelad and the Seven Silver Ducks. Their website is www.oboebass.com.

Dr. Erdahl is also the organizer and an annual participant in the Chamber Music Coffee Concert series at the Lakeville Area Arts Center

Courses Taught