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About me : Short Bio
Brooks Salloum (they/he) is a double bassist and music educator who recently relocated from Cincinnati, Ohio to San Diego. Brooks attended the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music and holds a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in double bass performance. Brooks was a teaching artist at MYCincinnati youth orchestra for four years before working with the San Diego Youth Symphony, and is an avid freelance performer of a variety of genres.
Brooks Taylor Salloum is a double bassist, music educator, and music innovator. Although they hold two degrees in classical performance, Brooks tends to veer towards a variety of genres; having regularly performed with a folk band, various jazz ensembles, a rock band, a tango group, a hip-hop orchestra, pits for musicals, and their own solo sets combining double bass with guitar, voice, and loop pedal. As an educator, Brooks maintains their belief that music should be accessible to all, and learning should be individually designed for each student. While working for a non-profit youth orchestra program called MYCincinnati, Brooks has developed various programs and projects to break the norm of what classical youth orchestra is “supposed” to be; such as a project in which music students wrote and arranged their own accompaniments to poems written by fellow youth. Brooks has formed musical groups to perform at protests, been involved in several benefit concerts, and worked for several years as a band coach and Youth Programming Coordinator for the nonprofit Girls Rock Cincinnati which serves girls and transgender youth. Brooks believes that music is a powerful force that can be used to build community, fight oppression, and expand one’s personal sense of self, and Brooks is destined to incorporate this belief into their career as a performer and educator. Brooks is non-binary and uses they, them, and theirs pronouns.
About me : Medium Bio
Brooks Taylor Salloum (they/them) has, since childhood, had an aptitude and unwavering curiosity for music. As well as being the double bass teaching artist at MYCincinnati, they are in the midst of their masters degree in Double Bass at UC’s College-Conservatory of Music (under the tutelage of Professor Rachel Calin). Brooks regularly performs double bass for freelance gigs with various groups, such as Elementz’s Hip Hop Orchestra and a folk-americana band Wild Carrot, as well as solo sets of covers and originals using their double bass, vocals, guitar, and a loop pedal.
Since initiating their conservatory studies as an undergraduate in 2015, Brooks has performed under the baton of maestros Aik Khai Pung and Mark Gibson, traveled to the Czech Republic on a scholarship to perform with the Prague Summer Nights Festival, and collaborated with organizations such as Concert:Nova, ArtsWave, WavePool, WordPlay, Girls Rock Cincinnati, and the Fringe Festival. In CCM’s Philharmonia Orchestra, Brooks was awarded the position of principal double bassist in 2021, and performed the famous Mahler Symphony 1 double bass solo.
Brooks’ bass skills are featured on various recording projects with musicians like Ric Hordinsky, Elsa Kennedy, and Jack .
Brooks’ career focuses on the use of music as a tool for activism, having donated performances to several activist causes and benefits over the years. Brooks co-founded the Youth Poetic Performance Collaboration, a project sponsored by MYCincinnati and WordPlay, in which youth poets and musicians join forces to craft performance pieces focused on activism causes. Brooks ultimately aspires to use music as a tool to dismantle systems of oppression.
