Michael Escreet
Bass
Michael Escreet was born in Scunthorpe but at the age of three the family moved into a bus which his father parked in a field somewhere in Leicestershire. He came to music through singing in the local church choir, and after his voice broke took up the double bass in order to remain involved in music-making.
After reading music at the university of York Michael took a job in the BBC Training orchestra, and a year and a half later became a member of the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra, where he was promoted to the no 2 seat after a week in the job. In 1997 he became principal bass in the BBC Philharmonic, from which he retired 10 years later, in order to do more period instrument playing. Whilst at the BBC he also played as guest principal with chamber orchestras such as SCO, Manchester Camerata, and Northern Camber Orchestra, and throughout his career he has endeavoured to play as much chamber music as possible, playing with the Legrand ensemble and the Goldberg Ensemble, of which he was a founding member. More recently, he as been invited to play with Ensemble Cymru. Highlights of his career include playing the obligato bass part in Mozart’s “per questa bella mano” in a live broadcast of a 4 hour concert celebrating 250 years since the composer’s birth in 2006.