Tony Ritch, Double Bassist
- Taught music and special education in California public schools for 23 years
- Taught college, high school, middle school and elementary school
- Fully credentialed in California
- Click here for full resume on Indeed.com
With degrees in double bass performance from both the University of Missouri at Kansas City and the USC Thornton School of Music, Tony completed his music teaching credential coursework and master’s degree studies in curriculum and instruction from California State University-Los Angeles in 2002. He attended Los Angeles Unified School District’s Intern Program and completed his special education credential in 2006. In addition to performing as a musician in San Francisco and Los Angeles, he taught music at Van Nuys High School (where he directed band, orchestra, jazz ensembles and musicals, including Godspell), was a substitute teacher in Los Angeles Unified School District, and was a special education teacher. He taught in Southern California for 23 years and retired to Hot Springs Village, Arkansas in 2021.
A Florida native, Harold began his study of the bass at 15 with Dale Gosa, and later studied at the University of Oklahoma with John Williams. He met and married his wife at 19 and took a hiatus from music to pursue a career in marketing. Ten years later, he resumed playing the bass and returned to school to finish his degree in music performance under the guidance of Ken Mitchell at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music.
After returning to the bass, Tony won many awards, including scholarship offers for graduate studies at San Francisco Conservatory, University of Southern California, Northwestern University, Mannes College of Music and a position in the Chicago Civic Orchestra, the training orchestra for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. As an undergraduate, Tony was principal bass of UMKC’s orchestras for three years, and performed professionally with the St. Joseph Symphony and the Liberty Symphony, where he was principal for two years as well as adjunct professor of double bass at William Jewell College. He also performed jazz and electric bass in touring Broadway productions with Carol Channing in Hello, Dolly!, Sayonara and The Secret Garden, performed with Roger Daltrey & The Who, was principal bass with the Utah Festival Opera, and was offered a faculty position teaching jazz bass at BYU-Idaho. He also performed in numerous master classes with noted bass players Francois Rabbath, Lawrence Hurst, Patrick Naher, Barry Green, Paul Erhard and Dennis Trembly, and made numerous solo recital and chamber music appearances, including the First Annual San Francisco Bass Bash.
Tony relocated to California to pursue graduate studies at the San Francisco Conservatory with San Francisco Symphony principal bassist Stephen Tramontozzi, and at the USC Thornton School of Music with studio player and bass soloist Nico Abondolo. While in California, Tony enjoyed eclectic experiences as a freelancer, including touring and recording as principal bass in San Francisco’s Spanish Baroque chamber orchestra and chorus, El Coro Hispano y Conjunto Nuevo Mundo. In addition, he premiered new composers’ works both at the San Francisco Conservatory and the USC Thornton School of Music, where he demonstrated the bass to young film composition students such as Bear McCreary, one of today’s most successful Hollywood composers.
Tony has held past memberships in the International Society of Bassists, the National and California Associations for Music Educators, and the American Federation of Teachers.