About the NCCP Players
Donald Palma
Double Bass
Forrest S. Balcomb Memorial Chair
Don Palma, a native New Yorker, is a founding member of the North Country Chamber Players and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra with which he has toured worldwide and has recorded over 555 CDs for Deutsche Grammophon, SONY and Nonesuch. He received his formal education at the Juilliard School, is a former member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and former Principal Bass of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra.
As a chamber musician, Palma has appeared in recital with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Jan DeGaetani and Jorge Bolet, performed with the Nash Ensemble, the Juilliard Quartet, the Borromeo Quartet, the Da Camera Society in Houston and the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society. He has also performed at the Madeira Bach Festival, the Colorado Music Festival, the Bridgehampton Festival, La Jolla Summerfest and Yale/Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.
He has recorded the entire Wagner Ring Cycle with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Palma was principal bass for Leonard Bernstein in his recording of West Side Story and a featured artist on Kathleen Battle’s CD Grace. With Speculum Musicae, the contemporary music group, Palma serves a double function as bassist and conductor.
He was also Music Director of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players from 1998-2000 and received two ASCAP Chamber Music America Awards for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music in 1999 and 2000. He has over 35 recordings of new works to his credit. He has recently conducted the Odense Symphony in Denmark, at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico and at the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society.
A sought-after teacher, Palma has given master classes at the Toho School of Music, the Juilliard School, Rice University, Mannes College of Music, the Hart School, the Manhattan School of Music, the San Francisco Conservatory and numerous others. Palma is currently on the faculties of Yale University and the New England Conservatory, where he is Director of Orchestras.
He lives in Newton Massachusetts, with his wife, Maira, and their seven year old son, Miles.