ABOUT XAVIER FOLEY
Xavier Foley is known for communicating his virtuosity and passion for music on the double bass, which is rarely presented as a solo instrument. Winner of a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, he has been recognized on New York WQXR’s "19 for 19" Artists to Watch list, and featured on PBS Thirteen’s NYC-ARTs.
Also a composer, Xavier was co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall and the Sphinx Organization for a new work entitled “For Justice and Peace” for Violin, Bass, and String Orchestra, which was recently performed at venues including Carnegie Hall as part of a program designed to promote social justice.
As concerto soloist with orchestra, he has performed with the Atlanta Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Nashville Symphony, Brevard Concert Orchestra, Victoria Symphony, Sphinx Symphony and Sphinx Virtuosi at Carnegie Hall.
Xavier won the 2016 Young Concert Artists International Auditions along with four performance prizes and a Paiko Foundation Fellowship, and First Prizes at Astral’s 2014 National Auditions, Sphinx’s 2014 Competition, and the 2011 International Society of Bassists Competition.
In 2018, he made his acclaimed New York recital debut at Merkin Concert Hall and his Washington, DC debut at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater. The program included two of his own compositions. He has also performed at Carnegie Hall as a Laureate of the Sphinx Competition, at the Young Concert Artists Series at Alice Tully Hall and the Morgan Library, and for Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Harriman-Jewell Series, and Buffalo Chamber Music Society. This season, Xavier will perform as soloist with the Dallas Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Stamford Symphony, and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. He will also perform recitals at Ithaca College, Mesa Arts Center, Chamber Music Charleston, University of Southern Mississippi, and will appear with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and La Jolla Music Society.
An active chamber musician, Xavier has appeared at the Marlboro Music Festival, Tippet Rise Music Festival in Fishtail, MT, Bridgehampton and Skaneateles (NY) Festivals, New Asia Chamber Music Society in Philadelphia, South Mountain Concerts, Wolf Trap, and with New York’s Jupiter Chamber Players.
A native of Marietta, GA, Xavier is an alumnus of the Perlman Music Program, and earned his Bachelor of Music from the Curtis Institute of Music working with Edgar Meyer and Hal Robinson. His double bass was crafted by Rumano Solano.