Paul Unger
Paul Unger is currently the Assistant Principal Bass of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and Professor of Double Bass at Texas Christian University.
An accomplished bassist and composer, Mr. Unger has appeared as a featured soloist with the Texas ballet Theater, the Mount Vernon Chamber Music Players, Spectrum Chamber Music, Opus Nova Chamber Music, Timeless Concerts and the Mimir Chamber Music Festival. His diverse abilities have also allowed him to perform and/or record with such artists as The Who, The Eagles, Elle King, Kevin Eubanks, Cheryl Bentyne, Bob Newhart, Bernadette Peters, Jay Clayton, Suzi Stern, Bobby Shew, Dick Berk, Ira Sullivan, Marcel Ivery, Andrea Bocelli and Weird Al Yankovic.
Paul's other teaching credits include orchestral repertoire class at the University of North Texas and summers at the Mont Orford Arts Centre in Quebec. Mr. Unger regularly teaches masterclasses in both classical and jazz bass playing. Some of his credits include masterclasses at the International Society of Bassists Convention, the Jazz Education Network International Conference, the Texas Music Educators Association, Oklahoma City University, Willamette University, Portland State University, Clackamas College and Lewis and Clark College.
Active throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth art community, Paul has been involved in a number of outreach festival events. These include playing a pivotal role in establishing the Fort Worth Public Libraries “Third Sunday” Jazz Concert Series that helped bring world renowned jazz artists to Fort Worth; The Jazz By The Boulevard Festival in Fort Worth, The Creative Music Alliance in Dallas, teaching students at the Fort Worth Youth Symphony, hosting Jazz Jams that give young students the opportunity to play with seasoned pros, outreach concerts through the local DFW Musicans Union and teaching classes at local schools like, Booker T. Washington in Dallas and I.M. Terrrell in Fort Worth.
Mr. Unger is proud of the fact that he has won two awards from his hometown paper, Fort Worth Weekly - one for “Best Bassist” and one for Flipside as “Best Jazz Group.”
In addition to his work as a performer, Paul wrote and directed the multiple award winning film, “The Last Supper”, which appeared in over a dozen festivals, worldwide, including the Tribeca Film Festival. He also produced the award winning “Symphonic Shorts” (a 10 part series on the musicians of the FWSO), and composed music for the feature film “Seventy-Eight”.