BIO
Pete Walsh is a double bass player and educator based in Boston, MA. He enjoys a vibrant, musically diverse career compromised of orchestral playing, historical performance, chamber music, jazz and musical theater, and everything in between.
As an orchestral musician Pete is currently Principal Bass of the Boston Festival Orchestra, Principal Bass of the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra, and Assistant Principal Bass of the Cape Cod Symphony. He is a frequent guest with top classical ensembles in Boston including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops and Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, Boston Ballet, Boston Lyric Opera, and Boston Modern Orchestra Project and has also performed with the Dallas, Detroit, and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras. He has participated in tours with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra to Europe, Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra to Japan, Dallas Symphony Orchestra to the US East Coast, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival to China, and multiple US East Coast tours with the Smithsonian Academy Orchestra. He was also a section member of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra for many years.
Pete is particularly inspired by studying historical performance practices and is an active performer in the field. He has performed with early music groups such as the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, New England Baroque, Smithsonian Academy Orchestra, Connecticut Early Music Society and Festival, Bach Virtuosi Festival, Emmanuel Music’s Bach Cantata Series, and Marsh Chapel Collegium.
Pete is equally dedicated to chamber music and small ensemble playing has been a guest artist with A Far Cry, a septet of the Boston Symphony Double Bass Section, Walden Chamber Players, Fine Arts String Quartet, Rasa String Quartet, Harvard Musical Association, Lake George Music Festival, Unitas Ensemble, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, and Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra. He is also Principal Guest Artist with Juventas New Music Ensemble and formerly Principal Bass of Boston’s Phoenix Chamber Orchestra.
As an educator Pete currently maintains a private studio and is on faculty at New England Conservatory’s Prep and Summer Orchestra Institute programs. He has also coached the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra’s bass section and taught through the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra’s Intensive Community Program (ICP), Wellesley Public School system, Harvard University’s Music Lesson Program, and the Boston Philharmonic’s Crescendo! program.
Originally from Dallas, Texas, Pete was initially drawn to the bass by listening to great jazz upright and electric bass players. He began playing electric bass at age 10 and shortly after joined his middle school orchestra program on double bass. Institutions such as the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra fostered a love for classical music. He also spent formative summers at the Interlochen Summer Arts Camp and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. While in Dallas he studied with Clifford Spohr of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Jeff Bradetich of the University of North Texas.
He received both his B.M. and M.M. at Boston University studying with Benjamin Levy and Edwin Barker, respectively, of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He additionally studied historical performance with Heather Miller-Lardin, Principal Bass of the Handel and Haydn Society. While in school Pete was a summer musician and fellow at the Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Center, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, National Orchestral Institute, and the Round Top Music Festival.
Pete performs on two instruments, a modern double bass by American luthier Arnold Schnitzer made in 2015 (#38) in New York and double bass made in southern Germany around 1870 with a distinctive carved lion head scroll. His modern bow is by Sue Lipkins of New York and baroque bow is by H.F. Grabenstein of Vermont.
