“The advantage of adding a double bass to the string quartet becomes clear when an entrance for Levitt provides the equivalent of an EDM drop.”
- I Care If You Listen
Louis Levitt
Louis Levitt (bass) is a standout amongst groovier new music…- Musical America
Grammy® nominated musician, entrepreneur, and educator, Louis Levitt was the first double bassist to win the Concert Artist Guild Competition with Sybarite5. He is also the founder of the critically acclaimed, Grammy® Award-winning record label, production company, and creative agency, Bright Shiny Things. A founding member of the string quintet, Sybarite5, Levitt has recently launched Sybarite Sound Lab- an incubator for bold artistic projects that extend beyond the core quintet, fostering ensembles of varying sizes, supporting boundary-pushing collaborations and commissioning an ever-expanding range of new works.
As an in demand chamber musician Levitt has performed in over a thousand concerts across the globe. Highlights include Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Library of Congress, Wolf Trap, Grand Tetons Music Festival, and the Aspen Music Festival. Internationally he has appeared at Festival Lyrique en Mer in France, Britten-Pears Festival in England, Osaka Festa in Japan, Ottawa Chamberfest & Tuckamore Chamber Music Festival in Canada, and at the Forum in St. Thomas Virgin Islands. Mr. Levitt has also served as principal double bassist of the Iris Chamber Orchestra in Memphis TN; the NOVUS Orchestra, NYC, NY; and Stereo Hideout Orchestra, Brooklyn NY.
As an educator, he currently teaches double bass at The Mason Gross School of Music at Rutgers University. He has also taught at The Juilliard School, Mannes, and at the Mostly Modern Festival. Levitt is a frequent guest soloist and lecturer, and has performed and spoken at the Curtis Institute, Juilliard, New England Conservatory, Mannes School, the Chamber Music America conference, and at the Association of Performers and Presenters national arts conference in New York City.
His self-produced debut EP with Sybarite5 cracked the top ten on the Billboard charts, and their follow up LP Everything In Its Right Place was released at Carnegie Hall on CAG Records. Sybarite5’s 2018 album, Outliers, debuted at #1 on the Billboard Classical Charts and helped launch Levitt’s record label, Bright Shiny Things. Since then he has brought over 130 albums to fruition as an artist partner with his reputation for caring creative collaboration and “smart as a Fox” (I Care If You Listen) strategies for recording artists. In just seven short years his label has received 11 Grammy® Award nominations, and a Grammy® Award for Pascal Le Boeuf’s Strands with Akropilis Reed Quintet in 2025. Recent BST recordings feature ensembles, performers and composers such as: Curtis Stewart, Alexi Kenney, Simone Porter, Jessica Meyer, Jordan Bak, Amanda Gookin, Joshua Roman, Mike Block, Eric Jacobsen, Shane Shanahan, Imani Winds, The Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Poesius Quartet, Sybarite5, PUBLIQuartet, Sinta Quartet, Akropolis Reed Quintet, Windsync, Merz Trio, Sasha Cooke, Brian Mulligan, Timothy Long, Ricky Ian Gordon, Gregory Spears, David T. Little, Daniel Bernard Roumain, Mary Kouyoumdjian, Tobias Picker, and Laura Kaminsky.
Mr. Levitt’s writings have been published by New Music USA and The 21CM Institute for Music Entrepreneurship at DePauw University. His “Louis’s bass hacks”instructional videos have been published by Double Bass HQ. He resides both in NYC and in Paris with his wife and two “spirited” children.
A large dose of the credit for the electric atmosphere of this concert also goes to Louis Levitt, double bass, musical entrepreneur and a driving force behind Sybarite5. - The Sarasota Herald Tribune
SHORT BIO:
Grammy® nominated musician, entrepreneur, and educator, Louis Levitt was the first double bassist to win the Concert Artist Guild Competition with Sybarite5. He is also the founder of the critically acclaimed, Grammy® Award-winning record label, production company, and creative agency, Bright Shiny Things. A founding member of the string quintet, Sybarite5, Levitt has recently launched Sybarite Sound Lab, an incubator for bold artistic projects that extend beyond the core quintet, fostering ensembles of varying sizes, supporting boundary-pushing collaborations, and commissioning an ever-expanding range of new works.