George Speed

Bassist George Speed enjoys a career that combines teaching with solo, chamber and orchestral performing.

Currently Principal Bass with the Tallahassee Symphony, Speed served as Principal Bass of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic from 2005-2019. For 17 years he was a regular player with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, including numerous television broadcasts and domestic and international tours. He has also performed with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Florida Orchestra and Handel & Haydn Society, among others.

Speed is passionate about both chamber music and solo performance. The Pierre Boulez Workshop at Carnegie Hall selected him to perform Schoenberg’s Kammersymphonie, Op. 9 in Weill Recital Hall under Maestro Boulez in 1999. From 2005-2019 he performed regularly with the Oklahoma City-based chamber ensemble Brightmusic. A frequent recitalist, Speed has also recorded two solo albums for Centaur Records: Vivaldi Cello Sonatas and Bass Favorites and Transcriptions from the 18th Century. Additionally, his original transcriptions of Vivaldi cello sonatas 1-6 were published by Recital Music in 2019.

A devoted educator, Speed is Associate Professor of Double Bass at Florida State University. Prior to his appointment at FSU in 2019, Speed served in the same capacity at Oklahoma State University, where he received the 2009 Wise-Diggs-Berry Award for Teaching Excellence. He has been on the faculty of the Brevard Music Center since 2016.

A native of Spartanburg, South Carolina, Speed earned the Bachelor of Music degree, summa cum laude, from Vanderbilt University, and the Master of Music degree from Boston University. Additional studies include summers at both the Aspen Music Festival and the Tanglewood Music Center, where he received the Rose Thomas Smith Legacy Prize. His principal teachers were Edwin Barker, Edgar Meyer, and William Scott. Speed plays on a late-19th century Neapolitan bass by Carlo Loveri.

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