Eastman School of Music announces two distinguished guest artists of double bass

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The University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music has announced the appointment of distinguished guest artists of double bass, Blake Hinson and Michael Martin.

Earlier this year, the school appointed Brett Shurtliffe as visiting instructor of double bass for the 2026/27 academic year. Shurtliffe will teach alongside Hinson in autumn 2026, with Martin arriving in the spring, before a search for a permanent professor of double bass is made in autumn 2027.

Hinson has served as assistant principal bass of the New York Philharmonic since 2016 and as a section member since 2012. He previously served as principal bass of the Grand Rapids Symphony.

As an educator, he joined the college and pre-college faculty at the Manhattan School of Music in 2024. He previously served on the double bass faculty at Stony Brook University from 2016 through 2023. 

He has given masterclasses at the Curtis Institute of Music, of which he is an alum, the Juilliard School, Oberlin Conservatory, the Royal Conservatory of Music, Bard Conservatory, the Hartt School of Music, and New York University, and serves as a regular coach for the New York Youth Symphony.

Martin has been a section double bassist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra since 2025, having previously served as principal bass of the Chicago Sinfonietta.

With a passion for string pedagogy, he is currently on faculty at Bass Works Maryland, of which he is an alum, during the summer and maintains a growing private studio at home. As part of his graduate degree, he studied string pedagogy with cellists Hans Jørgen Jensen and Cornelia Watkins-Dyer.

He is the creator of Black Reflections, a three-part panel discussion series on racial justice in music, featuring Black luminaries of classical music and jazz.