Artist Biography
Timothy Cobb, Double Bass
Timothy Cobb appears on stages such as Bargemusic, Bridgehampton, Caramoor, The Boston Chamber Music Society, The Lyric Chamber Music Society, The New Jersey Chamber Music Society, Mostly Mozart, La Musica Festival and The Great Performers at Lincoln Center as well as The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He was for three consecutive summers the bassist for the Marlboro Music Festival and has appeared on tour with Musicians from Marlboro. Mr. Cobb has collaborated with the Emerson Quartet, the Guarneri Quartet, the Moscow and St. Lawrence Quartets, as well as the Eroica trio.
A native of Albany, New York, Mr. Cobb began playing the bass at the age of seven and was playing professionally by thirteen. He attended the Curtis Institute of Music, awarded the sole position available for bass in the year of his application. While at Curtis, Mr. Cobb substituted regularly in the Philadelphia Orchestra and in the fall of his senior year became a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Sir Georg Solti. Appointed Associate Principal bass of the Met Orchestra in 1986, Mr. Cobb was granted a leave of absence by Maestro Solti to perform with the Met, where he elected to stay. 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. He has also enjoyed frequent collaborations with Maestro Levine in the chamber setting performing works such as Schubert's Trout quintet and Stravinsky'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 Mr. Cobb has made regular appearances.
Mr. Cobb has enjoyed invitations to perform in the 'world' orchestra created by Maestro Solti, (subsequently led by Maestro Valery Gergiev), and as Principal Bass in 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, 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.
Mr. Cobb has recorded for the Deutsche Grammaphone, Decca, Sony, and the Music & Arts labels, and is active as a studio musician in New York, recording numerous soundtracks for movie,television, song and advertisements featured nationally and internationally.
As an instructor of double bass, Mr.Cobb holds faculty positions at the Manhattan School of Music and Purchase Conservatory of the State University of New York. He has appeared at the Sarasota Music festival in Sarasota, Florida, to teach and perform chamber music featuring the double bass, and makes regular appearances coaching the basses of the New York String Seminar at Carnegie Hall. During the Met's month-long tour to Japan in May, he will make appearances as instructor and clinician, teaching both privately and in the master class setting at such institutions as theTokyo University of the Arts. Also while in Japan , Mr. Cobb will appear in recital at the United States Embassy in Tokyo.