In Tuesday’s (7/2) Boston Globe, James H. Burnett III writes, “Thomas Van Dyck is a bass player, and he’s exactly what you’d expect: handsome, hip, even athletic, and definitely cool. But don’t expect to see him on a dark, smoke-filled stage anytime soon draped in leather and riffing with his bandmates. Van Dyck, 32, plays the double bass, or string bass, as one of the newest members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, having joined the nine-member bass section in January. He beat out 257 candidates … It’s a long way from growing up in Philadelphia, where Van Dyck, the youngest of three brothers, played electric bass briefly in a garage band with his siblings … ‘There can be assumptions about the type of person who plays in a rock band or plays in an orchestra … ,’ says Van Dyck, who calls the English rock band Radiohead one of his biggest musical influences. ‘But I’d argue all those differences sometimes provide people opportunities to be more whole musicians or to find their niche. … I’m awed by what BSO has accomplished, and I’m grateful to be a part of it.’ ”
Posted July 3, 2013
