Doug Balliett’s prolific career spans classical performance, composition, rap, rock, spoken word, period performance, and conducting. As a bassist, he has performed with Alarm Will Sound, Ensemble Modern and Ensemble Modern Orchestra, San Antonio Symphony, and Metropolis Ensemble. He has earned fellowships at Tanglewood (principal under James Levine), Aspen (principal under Jane Glover), National Orchestral Institute (principal under Andrew Litton), National Repertory Orchestra (principal under Carl Topilow), and the Lucerne Festival Academy (principal under Pierre Boulez).

Doug’s compositions have garnered several awards including prizes in the Frederick Delius Competition, Leonard Bernstein Scholarship, and Harvard’s first annual Artist Development Grant. His hip-hop project The Oracle Hysterical was recently the featured composer-in-residence at the Lucerne Festival, where Doug and his collaborators presented an evening of Grimm songs and a new hip-hopera based on Herman Melville’s Billy Budd. In 2010, he composed, produced, and conducted his popera seria Lucretia, recently revived at New York University. Doug graduated from Harvard University in 2007 with high honors and is currently pursuing a master’s degree at The Juilliard School in Historical Performance. As part of his Academy program, he teaches in the Bronx at MS 244 The New School for Leadership and the Arts.