Biography
I was born in Schiedam, the Netherlands, but I grew up on Curaçao, where I started playing the cello. Back in the Netherlands, I studied at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, first with René van Ast, and then with Anner Bijlsma and his assistant Lidewij Scheifes. After completing my studies, I took lessons and masterclasses with Godfried Hoogeveen, Heinrich Schiff, Eli Goren, and Valentin Berlinsky. During my studies, I played both the modern and the baroque cello.
Most of my stage work is in chamber music. I started with three ensembles: Trio Uccellini, the Holland String Trio, and the Ives Ensemble. For many years, I played in Musica ad Rhenum, which significantly shaped my ideas about Historically Informed Performance (HIP). Extending HIP to 19th century repertoire, I performed with the Hortus Ensemble and the Archduke Ensemble.
After the pandemic, some of my groups have disbanded. However, the Ives Ensemble still exists as a beacon of modernism, despite efforts by my government to get rid of all contemporary music. The Hortus Ensemble was recently revived!
My passion for artistic research, HIP, and 19th-century music led me to pursue a PhD at the Royal Academy of Music in London under the supervision of Neil Heyde, which I obtained in 2019. My research focused on the playing style of Alfredo Piatti, the famous London-based Italian cello virtuoso.
