About Pete
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 electric bass, 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, where he also plays electric bass. Additionally he has performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops and Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Boston Ballet, Boston Lyric Opera, Odyssey Opera. He has participated in tours with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, and recently traveled to Japan with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra. He was also a section member of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra for many years.
An equally dedicated chamber music and small ensemble playing and is Principal Bass with the Boston based ‘Phoenix’ Chamber Orchestra and Principal Guest Artist with Juventas New Music Ensemble. As a guest artist he has appeared 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.
Pete is particularly inspired by studying historical performance practices. He has performed with early music groups such as the Handel and Haydn Society, Connecticut Early Music Society and Festival, Bach Virtuosi Festival, Emmanuel Music’s Bach Cantata Series, and Marsh Chapel Collegium.
Pete was a summer musician for three years at Yellow Barn, an intensive international chamber music festival in Vermont where he performed alongside musicians from prominent chamber ensembles. Pete has also been a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in Germany and on tour in China, National Orchestral Institute, and Round Top Music Festival.
As an educator Pete currently maintains a private studio. He has also coached the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra’s bass section and taught through the 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.
Pete performs on two instruments, a modern double bass by American luthier Arnold Schnitzer made in 2015 in New York and double bass setup for period performance 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.