PETE WALSH | BASS
Pete Walsh is a versatile double bass player and educator based in Boston, MA. Pete is particularly passionate about small ensemble playing and is currently Principal Bass with the Phoenix Chamber Orchestra Boston, Principal Guest Artist with Juventas New Music Ensemble, and a double bass continuo player with Marsh Chapel Collegium and Emmanuel Music. He has also performed as a guest artist with the Walden Chamber Players, Fine Arts Quartet, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, Harvard Musical Association, Unitas Ensemble, Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra and many others. Since 2018 Pete has been a summer musician at Yellow Barn, a 5-week intensive international chamber music festival where he has performed alongside musicians from prominent chamber ensembles.
As an orchestral musician Pete has performed with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood, Boston Lyric Opera, Odyssey Opera, and is a member of the Cape Cod Symphony where he also plays electric bass, and the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra. He has performed in many top venues around the world including Carnegie Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, Philharmonie Berlin, and the National Centre for Performing Arts in Beijing. He received both his B.M. and M.M. at Boston University studying with Benjamin Levy and Edwin Barker of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Pete has participated in summer fellowships at the Tanglewood Music Center, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in Germany and on tour in China, National Orchestral Institute, and the Round Top Music Festival. He has also been fortunate to work with many contemporary composers including Thomas Adès, Osvaldo Golijov, John Harbison, Brett Dean, Steven Mackey, and many others.
As an educator Pete currently coaches the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra bass section, teaches at the Wellesley Public Schools, and maintains a private studio. He has also taught through the Harvard University Music Lesson Program and throughout Boston with the Boston Philharmonic’s Crescendo! program.
Raised in Dallas, Texas, Pete was initially drawn to the bass by listening to great jazz 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 and Texas Public School’s Regional and State Orchestras fostered a love for classical music. He also spent formative summers at the Interlochen Summer Arts Camp and 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.
Pete performs on a double bass made in southern Germany around 1870 with a distinctive carved lion head scroll and a French bow by Polish-Canadian bow maker Zdzislaw Prochownik.