Donald Palma has an active career as a double bassist, conductor, and educator. A native New Yorker, Don attended the Julliard School and at the early age of nineteen, joined Leopold Stokowski’s American Symphony. As a member of the newly formed new music ensemble, Speculum Musicae, he went on to win the Naumburg Competition and secure management with Young Concert Artists. A founding member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Don has toured the globe and recorded over fifty compact discs for Deutsche Grammophon, including the Grammy Award-winning Stravinsky CD, Shadow Dances. Don has also been a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and played Principal Bass in the National Arts Centre Orchestra under Trevor Pinnock. He played principal bass for Leonard Bernstein on his recording of West Side Story and was a featured artist on Kathleen Battle’s recording Grace. As a performer devoted to contemporary music, he has played and conducted dozens of premieres and recordings of important works. Elliott Carter’s Figment III, Mario Davidovsky’s Synchronism No. 11, Charles Wuorien’s Spin-Off and Robert Ceely’s Harlequin are among the many works composed for him. He has conducted three critically acclaimed CDs of American music with the Odense Symphony in Denmark. Recently, he conducted Ives Symphony No. 2 and Strauss Four Last Songs with the Xalapa Symphony in Mexico, conducted/played in concerts celebrating Mario Davidovsky’s 80th Birthday in Bueno Aires and recorded Stravinsky’s L’histoire du Soldat for the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival. This season, he performed with Orpheus in Carnegie Hall and at the Cartenga International Music Festival. He is a member of Mistral, the Walden Chamber Players, and mUsic Director of the Symphony by the Sea on the north shore of Boston. Don is on the faculty of the Yale School of Music and the New England Conservatory, where he directs the NEC Chamber Orchestra.