Gene Waldron III (b. 1999) was raised in Wyoming, Ohio where he began violin and double bass studies at age three and nine, respectively. Throughout his undergraduate degree at Bowling Green State University, he was a Hansen Music Fellow and won the Douglass Wayland Chamber Competition. He was named runner up in the Young Artists Concerto Competition while completing a Master’s degree at Florida State University and playing with the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra. During studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Gene performed with many orchestras such as The Cleveland Orchestra, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, and NACO as part of their 2024 and 2025 Mentorship Program. Throughout his career, Gene has played under the direction of Franz Welser-Möst, John Adams, Fabio Luisi, and Alexander Shelley in some of the most prestigious halls around the world such as Carnegie Hall, Berliner Philharmonie, and the Wiener(Vienna) Musikverein. Gene Waldron plays on a 2023 Joey Naeger bass.