Biography
Bassist Rion Wentworth joined the New York Philharmonic in May 2016. Previously, he worked extensively in New York City as a freelance musician and performed with the New York Philharmonic, New York City Ballet Orchestra, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and the San Diego Symphony. He served as a faculty member and assistant principal bass of the Eastern Music Festival for two years, and is on the faculty of The Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division, where he has taught since 2012. Wentworth studied at the North Carolina School of the Arts, The Juilliard School, and the Aspen Music Festival and School, where his teachers included New York Philharmonic bassist Orin O’Brien as well as Lynn Peters and Chris Hanulik. His primary teacher and mentor has been Eugene Levinson, former Principal Bass of the New York Philharmonic, with whom Wentworth studied at Juilliard, earning his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees. Wentworth plays on a 1710 Pietro Giacomo Rogeri bass formerly owned by legendary jazz bassist Percy Heath, on extended loan by Barrie Kolstein, former owner of Samuel Kolstein & Son Violinmakers in New York.