Jason Gekker

Jason Gekker is currently a graduate assistant in double bass at the University of Maryland. His major teachers are Robert Oppelt and Anthony Manzo. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Cincinnati, College/Conservatory of Music where his teachers were Albert Laszlo and Rachel Calin. He has had additional study with Luciana Carneiro, Marc Facci and Meridith Johnson at the Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina. He has performed with the University of Maryland Symphony orchestra as principal bass, UMD Opera and Chamber groups, CCM Concert, Philharmonia and Opera Orchestra. In DC, Jason has played professionally with the Maryland Symphony, Apollo Orchestra, Great Noise Ensemble and Prince George’s Philharmonic. He was born in New York and grew up in Bethesda, Maryland and is from a family of musicians who perform regularly with their own Gypsy jazz and swing bands (Better Times Swing Quartet) and other local groups at venues like the Warrior Café in Bethesda, Riverdale Market, and the Arts Club of DC. Jason is focusing on orchestral studies as well as jazz and other genres. He continues to study music technology, recording and sound editing. Jason plays a Morelli bass built in the 1920s.