Faculty
John Hester
Bass
John Hester After leaving a wonderfully rich orchestral environment in Northern California, John Hester began working in Los Angeles as a string bassist in 1987. As a freelance musician he performs with many orchestras such as the Pasadena, New West, and Santa Barbara Symphonies. As a chamber musician, his noted performances include the West Coast premier of Anagrams and Aphorisms for clarinet and contrabass by William Toutant and Prokofiev's Quintet, Op. 39, with Eugene Gratovich, Karen Ritscher, and Kimaree Gilad.
He has performed in Europe as well as in music festivals in the U.S., including Round Top and Strawberry Creek. He holds a Bachelor of Music in performance from California State University Northridge and his principal teachers were Charles Siani, Ed Meares, and further studies with Julius Levine.
As an instructor Mr. Hester is passionate about the encouragement and development of musicians both young and old. Besides maintaining an active private studio, he has for a number of years taught orchestra in both the public and private school arenas to a widely diverse socio-economic and cultural student population.
As a string bass teacher he has also trained aspiring artists for international television performances with Disney's Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra. He is a former adjunct faculty member of California State University at Northridge and currently teaches string bass at Pepperdine University as well as CLU.