Viola de Hoog is a versatile musician whose distinguished international career has predominantly been focused on historically-informed performance. For twenty of those years she also travelled the world as the cellist in the renowned Dutch Schönberg Quartet.
After completing her studies at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam with Anner Bijlsma, she concentrated on performing chamber music, playing both modern and baroque cellos. In 1986 she was a finalist at the First International Concours for baroque cello in Paris.
For many years Viola de Hoog was principal cello with Anima Eterna, in which role she also performed with Tafelmusik Toronto, the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, English Baroque Soloists, the Baroque Orchestra of the Netherlands Bach Society and Concerto Köln; she currently is principal cello with Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht and The King’s Consort.
In 2009 – the Schönberg Quartet’s final year – Viola de Hoog founded the Narratio Quartet for the performance of Beethoven’s string quartets on period instruments. Challenge Records releases their recordings of the complete cycle during 2024-2025. The repertoire of her chamber music ensembles, both quartets and Ensemble Schönbrunn, spans from the seventeenth to the twenty-first centuries and has generated an impressive discography. Her recordings of Bachs cellosuites and Mendelssohns cellosonates are released by Vivatmusic.
Since 1990 she has been teaching cello, baroque cello and chamber music at the conservatories of Amsterdam, Utrecht and Bremen.
Viola de Hoog plays a cello made by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, Milano, c.1750, on loan from the collection of the Dutch Musical Instruments Foundation.