Dr. Sean O鈥橦ara has been a faculty member of Rhodes College since 2019. He earned his Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School where he studied with renowned double bass pedagogue, Homer Mensch. Following graduation, Sean spent three years in Miami as a member of the New World Symphony under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas. He earned his Master of Music degree from Carnegie Mellon University, and completed his DMA at the University of Memphis in 2022. The subject of his doctoral dissertation was the double bass鈥檚 role in the continuo of Handel鈥檚 Messiah.
A member of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra since 2012, Sean has also performed with the symphony orchestras of St. Louis, Kansas City, Detroit, and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. During the summers, he has been a regular member of the Artosphere Festival Orchestra and has served as principal bass of the Missouri Symphony鈥檚 Hot Summer Nights Festival in Columbia, Missouri. Other festival appearances include the Verbier Festival Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, and the National Orchestral Institute. For two summers, Sean served as principal bass of the Castleton Festival Orchestra under the direction of Lorin Maazel.
In addition to performing with the Memphis Symphony, Sean has been active in community engagement through the Memphis
