Camellia Aftahi (she/her) is an Iranian-American double bassist currently based out of Southern California. Her interests lie in the intersection between art, community, and self-exploration. From a background focused in classical music, Camellia now uses her skills as a bassist, musician, and teacher to engage in the performance and creation of original art, both hers and others’.

As a POC, Camellia’s experiences in classical music have led her to put dismantling institutional and internalized racism within the art form at the forefront of her work. She was a fellow of the 2018-20 class of the CSO/CCM Diversity Fellowship, where she earned her MM in Double Bass performance from CCM while regularly performing with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under the mentorship of CSO principal bass Owen Lee. During her time in Cincinnati, Camellia received the opportunity to attend SphinxConnect as a SphinxConnect Fellow, attend workshops which allowed her to work one-on-one with such leaders as Vijay Gupta and Ed Barker, and begin engaging in truly integral conversations concerning racism in classical music. Camellia looks forward to a lifetime of work towards ensuring that classical music is accessible to all. Camellia earned her BM in Double Bass performance from San Diego State University while studying with Jeremy Kurtz-Harris and Jory Herman. Camellia is a strong believer in the power of organizing within one’s own community to achieve structural change. She is a founding member of the Project for All Gender Equality, a group that leads the conversation of gender equality among bassists, which presented a panel at the 2019 International Society of Bassists convention. In Cincinnati, Camellia became a founding member of the new music chamber ensemble New Downbeat. Led by bassoonist Dr. Caroline Sackleh, New Downbeat is a space that provides female-identifying musicians the opportunity to premiere new works and work closely with composers. Also during her time in Cincinnati, Camellia became acquainted with the El Sistema educational system while teaching at the non-profit MYCincinnati, which provides a free musical education to students from varied backgrounds.

Other performing credits include performing with the La Jolla Symphony under the direction of Steven Schick, a summer with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra as a Diversity Fellow, the Colour of Music festival, and the Next Festival of Emerging Artists led by Peter Askim. In the summer of 2021, Camellia will attend the Bang on a Can Summer Music Institute at MASS MoCA as a Robert Black Double Bass Fellow.