A Southern California native, Aaron Blick joined the San Diego Symphony’s bass section in June of 2022. Born and raised in Los Angeles, he began his musical studies on the piano at age 5. By age 11, Mr. Blick’s musical interests had shifted to the double bass, and he began formal study at age 14 in both classical and jazz. At age 16, he was named a Herb Alpert Emerging Young Artist and was awarded a scholarship by the Herb Alpert Foundation to continue his musical studies. Blick earned his Bachelor of Music in 2018 from Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music studying with Andrew Raciti, Associate Principal Bass of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He then returned to his hometown to study with Los Angeles Philharmonic bassist David Allen Moore at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, earning his Master’s Degree in Music Performance in 2020. He continued his studies with Mr. Moore at USC as part of the Graduate Certificate program until Spring of 2022.
During his summers, Aaron Blick has attended Le Academie Domaine Forget de Charlevoix (2017, 2018) and was invited with orchestral fellowships to the Aspen Music Festival and School (2019) and Music Academy of the West (2020, 2021). Over two summers at Domaine Forget, he studied closely with some of the world’s most renowned double bassists and pedagogues including François Rabbath, John Clayton and Paul Ellison. At Music Academy of the West he was awarded the Keston MAX Fellowship with the London Symphony Orchestra. Since becoming a Keston MAX Fellow, he performed with the LSO under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle during their 2022 residency in Santa Barbara. He is invited to perform with the LSO again this coming Fall at the Barbican Centre in London.
Prior to joining the San Diego Symphony, Mr. Blick has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra, the Long Beach Symphony, the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. He has also been an avid freelancer and studio musician during his time living in Los Angeles and maintains a private teaching studio of young bassists. When not playing bass, Mr. Blick enjoys vegetarian cooking and playing golf and basketball, as well as following a variety of other sports. He has recently taken up a fascination with siphon-brewed coffee and looks forward to exploring all that beautiful San Diego has to offer.
Aaron Blick performs on a modern double bass made by Christopher Savino and French bows made by Jean Grunberger and Bernard Walke.