• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

David Ridge

David Ridge is the principal bass trombonist of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra. His duties with the company include playing trombone, bass trombone, and contra bass trombone. He also performs frequently with the San Francisco Symphony and Ballet and is a member of the California Symphony. Mr. Ridge has performed with every major arts organization in the Bay Area. Before moving to San Francisco, he held the position of principal bass trombone with the Charleston Symphony in Charleston, South Carolina. While there, he performed with the Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia, and Savannah Symphonies as well as with the Virginia Opera Company.

Mr. Ridge has recorded extensively with the San Francisco Opera. He has recorded operas: Herodiade; Orphee e Eurydice; Harvey Milk; A Streetcar Named Desire; and Dead Man Walking; national TV broadcasts: Dangerous Liaison; Turandot; Capriccio; A Streetcar Named Desire; and The Merry Widow, San Francisco Opera's Opening night Gala 1997; and videos: Capriccio; Turandot; A Streetcar Named Desire; and The Merry Widow. He can also be heard on the documentaries: Sing Faster; The Stagehands Ring, and The Making of Doctor Atomic. San Francisco opera performances can be seen in movie theaters around the country and heard on local, national, and international radio broadcasts. As a member of the San Francisco Opera, he has performed world premiers by Philip Glass, Jake Heggie, Andre Previn, Steward Wallace, and John Adams.

Symphonic recordings he can be heard on include Symphony at the Opera, with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Lou Harrison-A Portrait, with the California Symphony. As a soloist he can be heard on the CD Trombonarama, performing the world premiere of Martin Rokeach's Ninth Avenue Hustle for bass trombone and piano, which was written for him. He has recorded on the Sony, Teldec, Deutsche Grammophon, Erato Classique, Arabesque, London, Decca, Varese-Sarabande, Argo, Chapter III, and Milan labels, as well as on London, Pixar and Disney video.

Mr. Ridge is active in the recording industry and records frequently at GeorgeLucas' Skywalker Ranch. He can be heard on movie Soundtracks: The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past; Seventeen Again; In The Electric Mist, Barnyard; When I Find The Ocean; XXX2 State of the Union; Hellboy; Once Upon A Time In Mexico; Jurassic Park III; Spy Kids; Dracula 2000; The Game; Mimic; and Pooh's Grand Adventure, the Search for Christopher Robin; television movies: Running Mates; The Man Who Captured Eichmann; Member of the Wedding; A Will of Their Own; and imax movies: Cosmic Voyage and To the Max; and trailers: The Da Vinci Code; The Tale of Despereaux; and Pirates of the Caribbean III, 10,000 B.C. He has also recorded music for best selling video games: GI Joe; Red Faction; Godfather 2, Command and Conquer: Red Alert; Gears of War II; Prototype; Dead Space; Tiberium; Star Wars: the Force Unleashed; Uncharted -Drake’s Fortune; The Simpsons Game; Beowulf; Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain; and Gran Turismo 4; and albums: The Music of The Great Smokey Mountains and Chanticleer’s Christmas album Let it Snow. He can also be heard on the short films: Pocus (for Wall-E); Exploring the Reef (for the DVD of Finding Nemo; and Articles of War. Other commercial projects include music for Walt Disney World® U.S.A., Walt Disney World® Tokyo, Disney Cruise Lines®, Las Vegas and commercials for Taco Bell®, Burger King®, Kentucky Fried Chicken®, and Power Bar®.

Mr. Ridge has performed at many of the major music festivals in this country and abroad including the Arizona Musicfest, Tanglewood Institute of Music; Colorado Philharmonic/National Repertory Orchestra; Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy; Spoleto Festival U.S.A., American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria, Chautauqua Music Festival, Eastern Music Festival, Carmel Bach Festival, Evian Music Festival in Evian, France, and orchestral tours of Switzerland, France, and Germany.

Mr. Ridge has performed with many well-known artists including Natalie Cole, Michael Crawford, Linda Ronstadt, The Temptations and The Three Tenors. He was also a member of the national tour of Les Misérables, performing the show over 300 times and has performed on national tours of A Chorus Line and West Side Story.

Mr. Ridge is on the faculty at California State University East Bay and is a former faculty member of Charleston Southern University and Saint Mary‘s College. He is a frequent soloist and clinician throughout the United States. Some of the many ensembles and organizations that he has been soloist with include The United States Army Orchestra, The Eastern Trombone Workshop in Washington D.C., the John Donald Robb Composers' Symposium at the University of New Mexico, the Music Teachers' Association of California’s state convention in Sacramento CA, Composers Inc., and the Diablo Wind Symphony. He is also a popular soloist at the annual CSUEB Trombone Day. He has coached the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and at the Pacific Summer Music Institute at the University of the Pacific and has been a judge for the International Trombone Association's Donald Yaxley Bass Trombone Competition.

Mr. Ridge attended the New England Conservatory of music on scholarship and received his B.M. and M.M. of Music. He was given a full scholarship to attend the Mannes College of Music in New York and received the Professional Studies Diploma. His Teachers include John Swallow, Don Harwood, Steve Norrell, and Arnold Jacobs.

1/9/09