Brendan Kane

Double Bassist Brendan Kane has performed extensively throughout North America, South America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Australia. Mr. Kane is the former principal bass of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra upon being appointed and tenured by Music Director Lahav Shani. Prior to the IPO, he was a member of the MET Orchestra for nine seasons, under the direction of Music Directors James Levine and subsequently Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Previously, Mr. Kane held the positions of principal bass of the Orquestra Filharmônica de Minas Gerais in Brazil, assistant principal bass of the Vancouver Symphony in Canada and performed as guest principal bass of the Hong Kong Philharmonic at the invitation of Edo de Waart.

For the past 15 years he has been touring the world as principal bass of the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra (VFCO) under the direction of Music Director Gábor Takács-Nagy, including annual residencies at the Verbier Festival and Schloss Elmau in Bavaria. Additionally, Mr. Kane is a regular guest with the Budapest Festival Orchestra at the invitation of Maestro Iván Fischer and for ten years performed every January at the St. Barths Music Festival in the Caribbean. Currently based in Europe, he has quickly become a much sought-after guest principal, chamber musician and clinician. He frequently performs as guest principal bass with orchestras such as Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Oslo Philharmonic, Netherlands Radio Orkest, Geneva’s Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Singapore Symphony amongst others. He has also performed in the bass sections of the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Detroit Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa), New York Philharmonic, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra (London), Pittsburgh Symphony and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. As a chamber musician, Mr. Kane has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, The MET Orchestra Chamber Ensemble at Carnegie Hall, at the Verbier, Shenzen and Tsinandali festivals, Schloss Elmau, toured South Korea with the International Sejong Soloists, on the Israel Philharmonic’s chamber music series in Tel Aviv amongst numerous other festivals on both sides of the Atlantic alongside musicians such as Pinchas Zukerman, Maxim Vengerov, Leonidas Kavakos, Tabea Zimmerman, Misha Maisky and Sir Andras Schiff among others.

As a student, he was principal bass of the New York String Orchestra Seminar in Carnegie Hall and the Verbier Festival Orchestra, as well as a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, where he has returned numerous times as visiting faculty to coach and perform alongside current fellows at the invitation of Michael Tilson Thomas. A passionate educator, Mr. Kane has served as the double bass coach for the Verbier Festival Junior Orchestra and currently serves as the double bass coach of the Pan-Caucasian Youth Orchestra (PCYO) at the Tsinandali Festival in the country of Georgia in collaboration with Music Director Gianandrea Noseda. He is frequently invited to give masterclasses and lectures around the world at such esteemed institutions as The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, The Colburn School in Los Angeles, Amsterdam Conservatory, Beijing’s National Arts Center, Tel Aviv University, Jerusalem Music Center, The Mehli Mehta Music Fondation in Mumbai and the State University of Minas Gerias (Brazil), amongst others. Mr. Kane’s teachers have included Tim Cobb, Don Palma, Brian Liddle, Leigh Mesh and Jim Orleans. He holds degrees with honors from the New England Conservatory and the Juilliard School.