David Ridge

Trombone & Bass Trombone

Originally from Virginia Beach, Virginia, David Ridge is the Principal Bass Trombone of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra. His duties with the Company include playing trombone, bass trombone, and contrabass trombone. He performs frequently with the San Francisco Symphony and the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra as well as every other major arts organization in the San Francisco Bay Area.

David has performed at many major music festivals in this country and abroad including the Arizona MusicFest, Tanglewood Music Center, Colorado Philharmonic/National Repertory Orchestra, Festival of Two Worlds - Spoleto, Italy, American Institute of Musical Studies - Graz, Austria, Evian Music Festival - Evian, France, Spoleto Festival - USA, Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, Ohio Light Opera Company, Chautauqua Music Festival, Eastern Music Festival, Carmel Bach Festival, and the New College Music Festival.

David is an active recording musician and can be heard on recordings with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, California Symphony and on many film scores, video game soundtracks and commercial projects recorded at George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch. As a soloist, he can be heard on the CD Trombonarama, performing a piece that was written for him: Ninth Avenue Hustle for bass trombone and piano.

A committed educator, David is on the faculty at California State University East Bay, The University of California Berkeley and Diablo Valley College. He is a frequent soloist and has taught masterclasses throughout the United States. He has been soloist and clinician with the United States Army Orchestra, the Eastern Trombone Workshop, the American Trombone Workshop, the John Donald Robb Composers Symposium at the University of New Mexico and University of Southern Mississippi Trombone Day.

David received his B.M. and M.M. from the New England Conservatory of Music and the Professional Studies Diploma from the Mannes College of Music.