Michael Martin
Michael Martin is a second year double bass fellow in the New World Symphony from Allentown, Pennsylvania. Formerly, he was a Diversity Fellow with the Cincinnati Symphony, and an Associate Member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. He holds degrees from Northwestern University and Oberlin Conservatory of Music in double bass performance. Michael lives in Miami Beach, Florida, with his girlfriend Rose, their tuxedo cat named “Tofu”, and an ever-growing collection of houseplants.
Michael began his study of the double bass with Suzuki teacher Domenick Fiore in early high school, and quickly discovered a deep love of the double bass in all its musical capacities. He has studied with renowned bass professors Tracy Rowell, Andrew Raciti, Owen Lee, and Alexander Hanna.
Throughout his undergraduate and graduate degrees, Michael developed a passion for string pedagogy, and has taught private and group lessons at the Cleveland Institute of Music’s preparatory program, as well as lessons and ensemble coachings at Cleveland Heights High School. As part of his graduate degree, he studied string pedagogy with the legendary cello pedagogues Hans Jørgen Jensen and Cornelia Watkins-Dyer.
In addition to orchestral playing, Michael found an appreciation of contemporary music in his time at Oberlin Conservatory, and can be heard on the album Songtree performing the music of Ricardo Zohn Muldoon alongside faculty of the Eastman School. Michael is also the subject of an episode of the Slate podcast How To! by Charles Duhigg on peak performance. He is also the creator of Black Reflections, a three-part panel discussion series on racial justice in music, featuring Black luminaries of classical music and jazz such as Chi-chi Nwanoku, Christian McBride, and Dr. Tammy Kernodle.
Michael plays a modern instrument made for him in 2019 by Christopher Savino, and a bow by acclaimed Utahn bow maker Robert Dow.