Joseph Guastafeste
Principal
Bass
Joseph Guastafeste has been principal bass of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since the 1960-1961 season, when he was appointed to that position by Fritz Reiner. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he began his musical studies at a very young age on mandolin with the neighborhood Scambini sisters. After a couple of years, he switched to violin and made his final switch to the string bass with the encouragement of his older brother, Eddie, who needed a bass player for his jazz band. Eddie arranged an audition for him with one of the world's finest players and pedagogues, Fred Zimmerman of the New York Philharmonic and the Juilliard School.
Joe was admitted to Juilliard on scholarship and secured his first orchestral position in the New Orleans Symphony at the age of nineteen. He moved on to the Dallas Symphony as principal under the direction of Walter Hendl and Paul Kletzki. Later, Hendl was responsible for Fritz Reiner's hearing Joe audition for the CSO position.
He has performed in the Chautauqua Festival Orchestra in New York State and at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico. He also has played chamber music with the New York Wind Quintet, the Fine Arts Quartet, the Vermeer Quartet, the Emerson Quartet, and the Ravinia Institute Players (the Juilliard Quartet) and many other groups.
Joe currently is a member of the Grammy Award-winning Chicago Pro Musica and of Music of the Baroque, conducted by Thomas Wikman; he recently started the American Composers Ensemble. Last season, he soloed with the CSO in a concerto commissioned by the Orchestra and written for him by Elias Tanenbaum, a New York composer with whom Joe has been associated for many years.
Proud of his rare instruments, Joe plays a Dominico Buzon bass (circa 1749) for all orchestral work and a Gasparo da Salo (1585), which he uses for Music of the Baroque performances. In Tanenbaum's piece, First Bass Man, he played his Gagliano piccolo bass and a Paul Claudot instrument, a French turn-of-the-century that is owned by his wife.
Joe lives in Chicago with his wife, Yve Jorneaux, a writer. He enjoys cooking, eating, painting, and sculpting. He also, whenever possible, enjoys hiking in all weather on their North Woods property on the Canadian border in Minnesota.
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Joseph Guastafeste
Principal
Bass
Joseph Guastafeste has been principal bass of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since the 1960-1961 season, when he was appointed to that position by Fritz Reiner. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he began his musical studies at a very young age on mandolin with the neighborhood Scambini sisters. After a couple of years, he switched to violin and made his final switch to the string bass with the encouragement of his older brother, Eddie, who needed a bass player for his jazz band. Eddie arranged an audition for him with one of the world's finest players and pedagogues, Fred Zimmerman of the New York Philharmonic and the Juilliard School.
Joe was admitted to Juilliard on scholarship and secured his first orchestral position in the New Orleans Symphony at the age of nineteen. He moved on to the Dallas Symphony as principal under the direction of Walter Hendl and Paul Kletzki. Later, Hendl was responsible for Fritz Reiner's hearing Joe audition for the CSO position.
He has performed in the Chautauqua Festival Orchestra in New York State and at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico. He also has played chamber music with the New York Wind Quintet, the Fine Arts Quartet, the Vermeer Quartet, the Emerson Quartet, and the Ravinia Institute Players (the Juilliard Quartet) and many other groups.
Joe currently is a member of the Grammy Award-winning Chicago Pro Musica and of Music of the Baroque, conducted by Thomas Wikman; he recently started the American Composers Ensemble. Last season, he soloed with the CSO in a concerto commissioned by the Orchestra and written for him by Elias Tanenbaum, a New York composer with whom Joe has been associated for many years.
Proud of his rare instruments, Joe plays a Dominico Buzon bass (circa 1749) for all orchestral work and a Gasparo da Salo (1585), which he uses for Music of the Baroque performances. In Tanenbaum's piece, First Bass Man, he played his Gagliano piccolo bass and a Paul Claudot instrument, a French turn-of-the-century that is owned by his wife.
Joe lives in Chicago with his wife, Yve Jorneaux, a writer. He enjoys cooking, eating, painting, and sculpting. He also, whenever possible, enjoys hiking in all weather on their North Woods property on the Canadian border in Minnesota.