ISB 2025 Convention Presenter — Hans Sturm

Over the past forty years double bassist Dr. Hans Sturm has toured five continents, performing a wide range of music: 20th Century Music of the Americas with trumpet and marimba in Brazil; Beethoven symphonies in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Australia; avant-garde works with koto and percussion in Japan; jazz small group performances in China and Taiwan; and jazz bass and voice duets in Scotland, Italy, and France.

Hans has contributed performances and compositions to over fifty jazz and chamber music recordings. His most recent release, Voyage, Unaccompanied works of François Rabbath (2022), features seven previously unrecorded works by Rabbath. Among his recent releases are The Nebraska Project (2021) and Rose Fingered Dawn (2017) both featuring sets of original works he wrote for his wife, celebrated jazz vocalist Jackie Allen, and A Day In Paris (2016) featuring original works in collaboration with jazz composer Tom Larson. Of his performance on My Favorite Color (2015), Chicago Jazz Magazine remarked, “Hans Sturm is a beast on the bass… he plays perfectly.”  

Hans is the author of the authorized biography of François Rabbath, 75 Years on 4 Strings. Written over a five-year period, the book was a winner of the Association for Recorded Sound Collection for Excellence in Historical Sound Research award and The Strad enthused "I cannot recommend highly enough this lovingly written story of the most exciting and revolutionary bass player of our times." Hans is also the producer of two award-winning François Rabbath DVDs that feature biomechanics animations and user-selectable camera angles. He has served on the juries of numerous international competitions including the International Society of Bassists Jazz, Solo, and Composition competitions, and the American String Teacher’s Association Solo Competition. Hans is the Hixson-Lied Professor Emeritus of Double Bass and Jazz Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the Director of the Meadowlark Music Festival, and, two-time President of the International Society of Bassists.  

Jackie Allen Bio (2025)

Jazz vocalist Jackie’s extraordinary talent has taken her on tours of Europe, Africa, South America and Asia. Nationally she has toured both coasts and in-between, appearing in Los Angeles (Catalina’s), San Francisco (Yoshi’s), San Diego (Humphrey’s), New York (Blue Note, Josef Papp Public Theater), and in Chicago with the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic (Millennium Park), opening for Aretha Franklin (The Chicago Theater), and for Ella Fitzgerald's 90th Birthday Celebration (Auditorium Theater). She has performed for international music festivals in Detroit, Chicago, The Hague, Stuttgart, Edinburgh, Bologna, Beijing, Hong Kong, Thessaloniki, and Sao Paulo.

“This is four-hundred-dollar-a-bottle jazz – no cheap imitation.” – Rolling Stone

Born in Milwaukee, WI, Jackie grew up surrounded by music with her father playing Dixieland jazz tuba. She attended U.W. Madison studying Voice and Jazz. In Chicago she began her recording career for Naxos and Blue Note Records and others, recording 13 critically acclaimed CDs, notably: Santa Baby, The Men In My Life, Love Is Blue, Tangled, Starry Night with orchestra, and My Favorite Color (USAToday’s Top 10 List). Her 2017 Rose Fingered Dawn is a collection of original songs by her bassist and husband, Hans Sturm.

She released a live concert DVD and CD in 2019 entitled "A Romantic Evening with Jackie Allen" featuring tenor sax legend Bob Sheppard. Her second voice/bass duo album, The Nebraska Project, was recorded in Paris and released in 2021.

Jackie has served on the Board of Governors and Jazz Nominating Committee for the Recording Academy, “Grammy Awards” and has recorded with numerous Grammy winning artists and producers.

“Allen’s greatest strength is her sheer musicality and the way in which she both frames and interprets her songs.” – Los Angeles Time