Double bassist Nina DeCesare will join the studio faculty of the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University beginning in the 2022-23 academic year.
A member of the bass section of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra since 2020, DeCesare has also performed with the Oregon Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Knights Orchestra, and the Oregon Bach Festival. Equally comfortable as an orchestral musician, soloist, and chamber musician, she regularly performs with Third Angle New Music, 45th Parallel, and Classical Up Close. DeCesare has presented masterclasses at Peabody, the Pittsburgh Bass Symposium, and University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. In the summer, she has appeared as faculty at KC Bass Workshop, the Twin Cities Bass Camp, and the Rabbath Institute Los Angeles. In the summer of 2020, DeCesare co-founded the Double Bass Lab with members of the LA Philharmonic and the San Diego Symphony, teaching weekly classes for students unable to take lessons in person due to the pandemic.
DeCesare has studied with renowned pedagogue George Vance and worked closely with François Rabbath, Ali Yazdanfar, Ira Gold, and Hal Robinson. She completed her Bachelor of Music degree at Rice University, studying with Paul Ellison. During her time at Rice, she spent her summers at the Tanglewood Music Center, Sarasota Music Festival, Moritzburg Festival Academy, Wabass Institute and Domaine Forget International Academy. In 2012, she was awarded Rice University’s Wagoner Fellowship to spend the summer in Paris, where she studied intensively with François Rabbath. DeCesare also represented the Shepherd School as a part of the Conservatory Project, which culminated in a solo performance at the Kennedy Center.
DeCesare will join bassist Ira Gold in the Peabody Bass Department’s team teaching approach to professional training.