Blake Hilley is a Juilliard award-winning double bassist who performs both as a classical soloist and an orchestral bassist. Blake won a Section Double Bass Audition with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. He performed with them for the 2023-2024 season. He was invited to compete at the 2023 ARD International Double Bass Competition. He is currently a Substitute Double Bassist with the New York Philharmonic, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and the Savannah Philharmonic. He is also a devout teaching artist at the Atlanta Music Project, whose mission is to deliver world class training to under-resourced youth who wish to study music. 

 

He earned his Bachelor's of Music from The Juilliard School with Academic Honors in 2022, where studied with Timothy Cobb, Principal Bassist of the NY Philharmonic. He then continued his graduate studies at The Juilliard School with Timothy Cobb until 2025. While at Juilliard, Blake was the  Principal Double Bassist of the Juilliard Orchestra, Opera, New Music Ensemble, and Juilliard415 (the historical performance orchestra). He has performed under presitgious Maestros including Itzhak Perlman, Marin Alsop, and David Robertson. Blake, with Juilliard415, performed Principal and Solo Baroque Double Bass touring across Germany with Yale Schola Cantorum in a total of 6 concerts plus a kickoff concert at Alice Tully Hall. The program was Haydn's Symphony No. 6 and Creation Mass under Maestro David Hill. 

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Blake's discography includes a wide variety of Classical Music, Classical Crossover, and Singer/Songwriter. Blake's recording of Max Bruch's "Kol Nidrei" has been lauded by Jason Heath from Contrabass Conversations in Blake's interview at ContrabassConversations.com. His "Kol Nidrei" is also selected as part of Classical California's classical music radio catalogue. His latest releases include his original classical crossover compositions "Jukebox" and "Morning Storm". His classical discography include his "Meditations" EP, J.S. Bach's "Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major" and David Anderson's "Four Short Pieces for Solo Double Bass". His songs include "Blue Moods" and "Violet". 

As a composer, Blake has his compositions published at Double Bass HQ. 

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Blake has performed with the New York Philharmonic at David Geffen Hall, and with the Juilliard Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Blake was the Principal Bassist of the Juilliard Opera for Mozart's "Cosi fan Tutte". He was also the featured bassist of the New Juilliard Ensemble under the baton of Maestro Dr. Joel Sachs.​ Top winner of the Camerata Artists International Competition 2020, Blake has premiered a new work for the solo double bass called "Bass Heart" by Bishu Chattopadhyay. His chamber music concerts include Beethoven's 1st Piano Concerto arranged for String Quintet and Piano and David Anderson's "7 Double Bass Duets". 

 

Artists Blake has played with include the Goat Rodeo Sessions, featuring Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile, and Stuart Duncan. He has performed with Andrea Bocelli, Lindsey Stirling, and Celtic Woman. During the Pandemic, Blake was honored to be selected to perform with Itzhak Perlman and the Juilliard Orchestra in their virtual performance of Elgar's Nimrod featured on CBS Sunday Morning. 

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Blake works with his sister, Ilana Hilley , a producer, cellist, and singer/songwriter at NYU. Their latest release was "Violet" available on all streaming services.

 

As an artist who enjoys connecting with his audience, he has played concerts at libraries and retirement homes in Atlanta with Ilana. They both enjoy demonstrating the power of music not only in the concert hall, but in the everyday moments that can be made to last through music. Blake has also joined quarantineconcerts.tv as a way to bring music to individuals at home during the pandemic.