Marco Behtash
Key details:
- Department:
- Strings, Harp & Guitar
- Role:
- Double Bass Tutor
Biography
Marco Behtash is a proud SF Bay Area native, born in Berkeley, California, to Italian and Iranian parents.
He is currently Principal bass no.2 with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
Marco started playing the double bass at age 14, guided by Shinji Eshima of the SF Opera. He furthered his studies at the San Francisco Conservatory with Scott Pingel and later at Guildhall School of Music & Drama, completing his masters degree in 2014 with Rinat Ibragimov and Luis Cabrera.
He gained invaluable experience playing with orchestras including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (graduating the RCO's academy programme in 2015), the London Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Netherlands Philharmonic and Chamber Orchestras, and several others.
In 2016 he joined the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House as Sub-Principal bass, and was promoted in 2022 to his current position.
Some of Marco's favourite musical experiences have featured artists such as Bernard Haitink, Joyce DiDonato, Marc Minkowski, Christian Zacharias, Janine Jansen, Dimitri Hvorostovski, Ermonela Jaho, Lars Vogt, Gianandrea Noseda, Bryn Terfel, Leonidas Kavakos, Antonio Pappano, Valery Gergiev, Garrick Ohlsson, Semyon Bychkov, Joseph Celleja, and Anna Netrebko.