Orin O'Brien
Bassist Orin O’Brien has been a member of the New York Philharmonic since 1966, when she became the first woman to join the orchestra, then under Music Director Leonard Bernstein’s leadership. She currently teaches at the Juilliard School, where she was co-chair of the double bass department from 1992 to 2002; Manhattan School of Music, where she is also on the faculty of the Precollege Division; and Mannes College the New School for Music.
Born in Hollywood in 1935 to actors George O’Brien and Marguerite Churchill, Ms. O’Brien received her early musical training in Los Angeles. At the University of California she studied with Milton Kestenbaum, former principal bass of the NBC Symphony Orchestra and Pittsburgh Symphony under Fritz Reiner, and Herman Reinshagen, former principal bass of the New York Philharmonic under Gustav Mahler and Arturo Toscanini. She continued her studies in New York with Frederick Zimmermann, graduating from the Juilliard School. Before joining the New York Philharmonic, she was a member of the New York City Ballet Orchestra from 1956 to 1966 and performed with, among many others, Stokowski’s American Symphony Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and Musica Aeterna in New York. She has played with the world’s leading conductors and performed in numerous chamber music festivals, including the Marlboro Music Festival, where in the 1960s she made recordings with Pablo Casals and gave the premiere of Gunther Schuller’s Quartet for Four Double Basses. Her chamber music performances have included the quintets of Schubert and Dvořák with the Guarneri String Quartet. Ms. O’Brien has given master classes at the Peabody Institute, the Tanglewood Festival, New England Conservatory, and Yale University.
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