Michel Taddei leads an active career as double bassist, educator, conductor, and singer in the Bay Area and beyond. He is Principal Bass of the Berkeley, Fremont, and Pacific Chamber Symphony Orchestras, as well as of the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, Symphony Napa Valley, and Mendocino Music Festival. He is also Assistant Principal Bass of the California Symphony, and is often invited to perform with other orchestras, frequently as principal. Among the groups with which he has played are the San Francisco Symphony, Russian National Orchestra, and New Century Chamber Orchestra, and he has done a substantial amount of recording at Skywalker Sound. He played for seven seasons as Principal Bassist for the Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Lyon at the invitation of Kent Nagano, and toured and recorded extensively with that ensemble.
Chamber music and new music play a significant role in Michel’s professional activity: a founding member of the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, he has also performed in numerous other groups and series including the Empyrean Ensemble, EARPLAY, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the Moab Music Festival, the Festival des Sept Chapelles in Brittany, the festivals of Rives de Gier and Caves de Roussillon, and with Yo Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble on tour in the US and Central Asia. A number of new works have been composed specifically for him, and he has appeared as soloist with several Bay Area orchestras.
Michel is Director of Artistic Administration at the Crowden Music Center in Berkeley, and also teaches bass, coaches chamber music, and conducts orchestras and choirs in Crowden’s day school and community programs. He is invited to conduct annually at the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra (PACO), and is a longtime faculty member for PACO’s chamber music intensive. He is also a consultant for educational programs and is a visiting artist for Music at Kohl Mansion. As a singer, Michel has been heard in concert and opera settings in works including Candide, Béatrice et Bénédict, and Stravinsky’s Renard.