I am Eva and I work as a freelance double bassist and violone player. I specialized in historically informed performance practise on period instruments for music from the Baroque period up to the late romantic era. Next to that, I love playing modern and contemporary music.
Season 2026/2027 started off wonderfully with an appointment as member and principal bassist with Concerto Köln, with many interesting projects. Other early music groups I play with are, among others, Barockorchester & Kammerchor Stuttgart, Main Barockorchester and my own group Nürnberg Barock. On modern bass, I play chamber music with Ensemble Almanach and I am a substitute player with groups such as Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, the Residentie Orkest and Het Muziek ( former ]ASKO|Schönberg) in the Netherlands. I also sometimes make and perform music theatre at the Theater Pfütze in Nuremberg.
Thanks to donations from the Stichting Eigen Muziekinstrument and the Adriana Jacoba Fund, I could purchase two double basses: One anonymous instrument from around 1890 and a copy of a Stadlmann, made in 2023 by Christiane Mitschke.
July 16 & 18 | Concerto Köln With Chorwerk Ruhr Bach – B minor Mass Dom, Brixen Heilig-Kreuz-Münster, Schwäbisch Gmund
July 3 – 4 | Klassische Philharmonie, Kammerchor Stuttgart, F. Bernius Mendelssohn – Paulus Rheingau Festival, ION, Nürnberg
June 27 – 29 | Ensemble Almanach „Gipfeltreffen“ mit Ulrich Noethen, sprecher Konzertkirche Neubrandenburg, Annenkirche, Dresden, St. Georgenkirche, Schwarzenberg
About
I work as a freelance double bassist and violone player. I studied double bass in Utrecht with Quirijn van Regteren Altena and historical bass/violone with Margaret Urquhart. Early music ensembles I play with at the moment are, amongst others, Main Barockorchester, Barockorchester & Kammerchor Stuttgart, the L’Orfeo Barockorchester. In 2018, I started performing with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment as part of their Experience Scheme, which has resulted in more performances there as a substitute player.
On the modern double bass, I love playing modern and contemporary music. Together with violinist Kirsti Apajalathi, I form a duo called DUO Kirsti & Eva, and I play free improvised music with the Random Control Ensemble (with Wolfgang Eckert on piano and Paul Bießmann on synthesizer/electronics). I also worked as a guest player with the ASKO|Schönberg ensemble in Amsterdam and the Residentie Orkest in The Hague.
I was born (1988) and raised in Amsterdam and started violin lessons at the age of 6. I had the privilege to attend a high school one block away from the Concertgebouw so I regularly attended concerts there as a teenager. My interest in the double bass started in my youth orchestra and at the age of 16, I switched from the first violins to the basses, where I felt in the right place. Nevertheless, I –wrongly– thought a musical was not for me, so I decided to study law at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. Luckily I met Ying Lai Green, bassist from the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom I had lessons for 4 years. Thanks to her support and encouragement, I was not only accepted for double bass studies but I also finished my law degree.
During my studies in classical double bass with Quirijn van Regteren Altena (Utrecht Conservatory), I have received amazing lessons in historically informed performance practice from cellist Viola de Hoog, violinist Antoinette Lohmann and bassist and gambist Joshua Cheatham. I love the combination of delivering strong emotional expressions and intellectual, historical knowledge.
On the modern bass I received masterclasses from world-class bassists such as Joel Quarrington, Jeff Bradetich, Edicson Ruiz and James Oesi.
The modern double bass I play is a Gagliano model built by Harry Jansen in 2008, borrowed from the Dutch Musical Instruments Foundation. Thanks to generous donations from the Stichting Eigen Muziekinstrument and the Adriana Jacoba Fund, I could purchase two double basses to use for historically informed performances: One anonymous instrument from around 1890 and a copy of a Viennese bass by Stadlmann, made by Christiane Mitschke.
CD recording of wonderful music for double choir and orchestra by G. B. Pergolesi, recorded in April 2024. Released November 2025. Have a listen on tidal, spotify, or a radio broadcast on SWR from December 23rd.
Ensemble Altera Pars
Excerpts from the “Sinfonia in F” by Sebastian George, from the 1st and the 3rd movement. Live concert at the WDR, Cologne on October 4th, 2023.
Live performance of iLolli-pop, by and with Alex Paxton, recorded on September 2022. Gaudeamus Muziekweek, TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht.
Trigonale – Festival der Alten Musik 2023
Dido, Regina di Cartagine by Guido Morini
recorded October 2023
DUO Kirsti & Eva
We are very pleased to be the first performers of a new piece by Rieteke Hölscher! She wrote “Tantalizing” for our duo, a beautiful and poetic piece. We hope you like it as much as we do!
The local newspaper Vierklank wrote a review of our concert in Bilthoven on July 9th, 2021. OPEN Rotterdam made a short video item of our backyard concerts in Rotterdam on April 28th, 2021. Both were part of our project, “Away from Home” for which we received funding from the Dutch Performing Arts Fund.
A live performance of the famous finnish tango “Täysikuu” by Valto Tynnilä and arranged by Kirsti. Tango has been part of the cultural heritage of Finland since the start of the 20th century.
This melody “horse race” from China is traditionally played on erhu, a chinese violin but Kirsti made an arrangement for our duo.
Both videos have been recorded on July 10th, 2021 in the Buiksloterkerk in Amsterdam.
Reinhold Glière – Suite op. 39, Prelude. with Kirsti Apajalahti Recorded 31.08.2019 in Shelley’s beautiful parlour in Rotterdam.
Bremer Barockorchester
Antonio Vivaldi Concerto in C major, RV 443, with Dorothee Oberlinger. Recorded 13.02.2020 in the “Unser Lieben Frauen” Church in Bremen.
Georg Philipp Telemann Overture Suite in C major Recorded 13.02.2020 in the “Unser Lieben Frauen” Church in Bremen.
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Night Shift concert on 10.04.2018 at Conway Hall, London
W. A. Mozart – Horn concerto no. 1 – Rondo, with soloist Roger Montgomery
Concert on 11.11.2018 in the Royal Festival Hall, London with Marin Alsop, conductor.
Vaughan Williams – Variations on a theme by Thomas Tallis Brahms – Ein Deutsches Requiem
