Tim Cobb
Encyclopedia
Manhattan School of Music
The Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...
faculty in 1992. Cobb also currently teaches at SUNY Purchase
State University of New York
The State University of New York, abbreviated SUNY , is a system of public institutions of higher education in New York, United States. It is the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States, with a total enrollment of 465,000 students, plus...
, Lynn University, Rutgers University: Mason Gross School of the Arts, and is the current chair of the double-bass department at the Juilliard School
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
where he has been on faculty since 2002. For the 2011-2012 season, Cobb will be acting principal double bass of the New York Philharmonic.
Performance Career
A native of Albany, New YorkAlbany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
, Cobb began playing the bass at the age of seven, studying with his father David Cobb, and was playing professionally by thirteen. He attended the Curtis Institute of Music
Curtis Institute of Music
The Curtis Institute of Music is a conservatory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that offers courses of study leading to a performance Diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in Opera, and Professional Studies Certificate in Opera. According to statistics compiled by U.S...
, where he was awarded the sole position available for bass in the year of his application to study with Roger Scott. In 1982 and 1983, Cobb was a member of the New York String Orchestra Seminar under Alexander Schneider. While at Curtis, Cobb substituted regularly in the Philadelphia Orchestra
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...
and in the fall of his senior year became a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1891, the Symphony makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival...
under Sir Georg Solti. Appointed associate principal bass of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in 1986, Cobb was granted a leave of absence by Maestro Solti to perform with the Metropolitan Opera, where he elected to stay. He was appointed principal bass several years later after the departure of Laurence Glazener in 2004. As a member of the Met Orchestra, he has enjoyed touring with the entire company and with the orchestra on the symphonic stage, led by Maestro James Levine
James Levine
James Lawrence Levine is an American conductor and pianist. He is currently the music director of the Metropolitan Opera and former music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Levine's first performance conducting the Metropolitan Opera was on June 5, 1971, and as of May 2011 he has...
. He has also enjoyed frequent collaborations with Maestro Levine in the chamber setting performing works such as Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
’s “Trout” Quintet and Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
’s L’Histoire du soldat, to name but two. Maestro Levine has created a series at Weill Hall in New York to showcase the chamber abilities within his orchestra, a series where Cobb has made regular appearances. Cobb can be heard on all Met recordings since 1985.
Cobb has enjoyed invitations to perform in the World Orchestra for Peace created by Maestro Solti, (subsequently led by Maestro Valery Gergiev
Valery Gergiev
Valery Abisalovich Gergiev is a Russian conductor and opera company director. He is general director and artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, and artistic director of the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg.- Early life :Gergiev,...
), and in Japan as principal bass of the new “super orchestra,” a gathering of musicians from major orchestras around the world. He was recently appointed principal bass of the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra led by Maestro Gerard Schwarz
Gerard Schwarz
Gerard Schwarz is an American conductor. He was music director of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra from 1985 to 2011.In 2007 Schwarz was named music director of the Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina, having served as principal conductor since 2005...
(currently by Louis Langree), and is solo bassist for the Harmonie Ensemble, a New York–based woodwind ensemble, as well as the solo bassist for the St. Barth’s International Music Festival, St. Barthelemy, French West Indies, where he performs for a week in January each year. He also recently appeared in Ainay-le-Vieil, France, performing with the American Chamber Ensemble, and has also performed at Bargemusic, the Bridgehampton Festival, Caramoor, the Boston Chamber Music Society, the Lyric Chamber Music Society, the New Jersey Chamber Music Society, Mostly Mozart, La Musica Festival, the Sarasota Music Festival, the Great Performers at Lincoln Center series, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. For three years, Cobb was the solo bassist for the Marlboro Music Festival and has toured with Musicians from Marlboro. Cobb has also collaborated with the Emerson Quartet, the Guarneri Quartet
Guarneri Quartet
The Guarneri Quartet was an American string quartet founded in 1964 at the Marlboro Music School and Festival. During the quartet's early years the members were in residence at Harpur College in upstate New York....
, the Moscow and St. Lawrence Quartets, and the Eroica Trio.
Cobb has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon
Deutsche Grammophon
Deutsche Grammophon is a German classical record label which was the foundation of the future corporation to be known as PolyGram. It is now part of Universal Music Group since its acquisition and absorption of PolyGram in 1999, and it is also UMG's oldest active label...
, Decca
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
, Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
, and Music & Arts
Music & Arts
Music & Arts is an American record label based in Kensington, California.Music & Arts is owned and operated by Music and Arts Programs of America, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to informal education in the arts, established in California in 1984...
labels and is active as a studio musician in New York, recording numerous soundtracks for movies, television, songs, and advertisements featured nationally and internationally.
Each year in December, he coaches the basses of the New York String Orchestra Seminar at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
. In June, Cobb joins the Sarasota Music Festival to perform as well as to coach chamber music featuring the bass. Cobb was recently invited to give a master class and recital at the Tokyo University of the Arts in Japan, San Francisco Conservatory of Music
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
San Francisco Conservatory of Music, formerly the California Conservatory of Music, founded in 1917, is a music school, with an enrollment of about 400 students. It was launched by Ada Clement and Lillian Hodgehead in the remodeled home of Lillian's parents on Sacramento Street. It was called the...
, and Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
's School of Music. Cobb is part of the faculty of YOA Orchestra of the Americas
YOA Orchestra of the Americas
Led by Artistic Advisor, Plácido Domingo, YOA Orchestra of the Americas is a multicultural symphony orchestra of 100 musicians, ages 18 to 30, from more than 20 countries of the Western Hemisphere. Musicians are selected through a rigorous audition process at local, national and international...
.
Cobb lives in New York City with his wife, son and daughter.
Partial list of notable students
- Matt Abramo, member of the Louisiana Philharmonic
- Bradley Aikman, associate member of the Metropolitan OperaMetropolitan OperaThe Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
Orchestra - Richard BarberRichard BarberRichard William Barber FRSL FSA FRHistS is a British historian who has been writing and publishing in the field of medieval history and literature ever since his student days. He has specialised in Arthurian legend, beginning with a general survey, Arthur of Albion which is still in print in a...
, assistant principal of the National Symphony OrchestraNational Symphony OrchestraThe National Symphony Orchestra , founded in 1931, is an American symphony orchestra that performs at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.-History:... - Tom BerryTom BerryFor the professional baseball player, see Tom Berry Thomas Matthew Berry was the fourteenth Governor of South Dakota. Berry, a Democrat from Belvidere, South Dakota, served from 1933 to 1937...
, member of the Scottish OperaScottish OperaScottish Opera is the national opera company of Scotland, and one of the five national performing arts companies funded by the Scottish Government... - Michael FullerMichael FullerMichael Fuller, QPM is the former Chief Constable of Kent Police and was the first black Chief Constable in the United Kingdom.Fuller took up his role as Chief Constable of Kent on 5 January 2004. He joined the Metropolitan Police Service in 1975 as a cadet. He has served in uniformed and CID...
, member of the Philharmonia OrchestraPhilharmonia OrchestraThe Philharmonia Orchestra is one of the leading orchestras in Great Britain, based in London. Since 1995, it has been based in the Royal Festival Hall. In Britain it is also the resident orchestra at De Montfort Hall, Leicester and the Corn Exchange, Bedford, as well as The Anvil, Basingstoke...
, London - John GrilloJohn GrilloJohn Grillo is a British actor and playwright who has appeared in many film and television productions....
, member of the Pittsburgh OperaPittsburgh OperaPittsburgh Opera is an American opera company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is one of two opera companies in the city, the other being Opera Theatre of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh Opera gives performances in several venues, primarily at the Benedum Center, with other performances at the... - Daniel Krekeler, member of the Metropolitan OperaMetropolitan OperaThe Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
Orchestra - Ranaan Meyer, jazz bassist
- Edward Paulsen, member of the Kansas City SymphonyKansas City SymphonyThe Kansas City Symphony is a United States symphony orchestra based in Kansas City, Missouri. The current music director is conductor Michael Stern. The current home of the Symphony is the Lyric Theatre, located in Downtown Kansas City on 11th Street between Wyandotte and Central Streets...
- Scott Pingel (musician)Scott Pingel (musician)Scott Pingel is an American bassist who is currently the principal bassist in the San Francisco Symphony. He had previously served as the principal bassist with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra . Pingel is also an educator who has taught at institutions like Juilliard, the Manhattan School of...
, principal of the San Francisco SymphonySan Francisco SymphonyThe San Francisco Symphony is an orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980, the orchestra has performed at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall. The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus are part of the organization... - Kim Plewniak, assistant principal of the Spokane SymphonySpokane SymphonyThe Spokane Symphony is a 70-piece orchestra based in Spokane, WA that performs more than 60 concerts per year for more than 150,000 listeners. It was originally incorporated in 1945 as the Spokane Philharmonic before being renamed the Spokane Symphony in 1962...
- Peter Rosenfeld, member of the Montreal Symphony
- Jonathan Rouse, member of the Quebec Symphony
- Genna Spinks, member of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
- Jens Tenbroek, member of the Utah Symphony OrchestraUtah Symphony Orchestra-History:The first attempt to create a symphony group in the Utah area occurred in 1892, before Utah was a state. The Salt Lake Symphony was created and presented just one concert before disbanding. In 1902 the Salt Lake Symphony Orchestra was formed, and it remained in existence until 1911...
- Ryan WalterRyan WalterRyan William Walter is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre who played 15 seasons in the National Hockey League...
, member of the New Mexico Symphony - Matthew Way, principal bass, National Center for the Performing Arts (China)