Shawn Conley

Shawn Conley (bass) is a Hawaii-born bass player and composer who grew up enjoying all types of music. This love of diversity of sound developed into a career that straddles many genres. Conley has been a member of the Silk Road Ensemble for 10 years and is also a member of the Brooklyn-based chamber orchestra The Knights. Recently, he won the principal bass position in the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra. Conley will be releasing his first solo bass recording this year, exploring the connection between Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 and freely improvised pieces.

You can hear Conley on the Grammy Award-winning CD Sing Me Home with Silk Road and Yo-Yo Ma as well as the 2024 album with Rhiannon Giddens and the Silkroad Ensemble based on the American railroad and the overlooked Indigenous and immigrant communities who built it. He can also be heard on several recordings by The Knights, including the album Azul and a new recordings of composer Anna Clyne’s music, both featuring Yo-Yo Ma, and in the Beethoven and Brahms violin concertos featuring Gil Shaham.

As a studio musician, Conley has performed on soundtracks including True Grit, Moonrise Kingdom, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Ken Burns’ Vietnam War documentary, and the Amazon series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

Conley studied at Rice University with Paul Ellison and in Paris with Francois Rabbath. He currently lives in Honolulu with his wife Megan and their son Osian.