International Masterclasses for Commited Cellists

Jeroen den Herder completed his studies with distinction with Maria Hol, Dmitri Ferschtman and Christopher Bunting. He then became a leader of the Cello Octet Conjunto Ibérico, a group with a worldwide reputation as a full time cello ensemble.

Den Herder gained several music awards. Among them a first prize-winner of the “Postbank Sweelinck” cello competition and the first prize of the Foundation of the Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam. He’s been an active chamber music player, performing with musicians like Janine Jansen, Igor Roma, Anner Bijlsma and as a member of the Ruysdael Quartet Den Herder performed in all major concert halls in Holland (Concertgebouw) England (Wigmore Hall) and Japan (Oji Hall). Their concerts at the Amsterdam Quartet Biënnale received much acclaim. Between 1999 and 2012 Jeroen has been the cellist of the Nieuw Ensemble, one of the leading Dutch ensembles for contemporary music.

Fulfilling the function of artistic director CelloWercken Zutphen, which embodies both the International Cello Festival and the Cello Academy, he commissioned contemporary composers the write for the festival, leading to inspired projects such as The Tibetan Book of the Death and Passion of Innocence.

Den Herder has been a dedicated teacher ever since he took a professorship at the age of 22 at the Utrecht conservatory. His lessons are based on the development between mind and body, and a cello technique inspired by his teacher Christopher Bunting, a former student of Pablo Casals. Cello playing based on natural principles like gravity, character and playfulness.

“Everything is music, play not to avoid mistakes, delegation of body functions and breathing” are some key topics which will lead to a healthy way achieving perfection. His main focus is making people aware what they exactly practise. He believes being aware of one’s imagination, sensitive listening, intuition and delegation of body functions are elements that have proved to be the best teachers for life.

He’s been a regular guest teacher at the Conservatory in Minsk (2003-2010) and visiting guest- professor at the University in Tainan, Taiwan. Furthermore he has given masterclasses in Holland, Belgium, Spain, Germany, France, China and Israel. Today he helds positions as a teacher at the Conservatories of Utrecht and Rotterdam.

“I’ve heard Jeroen den Herder performing the Elgar cello concerto with the Sint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra. He played with great distinction and sensitivity, and I believe he will grow into a wonderful cellist” Yehudi Menuhin, 1995.

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.

Joachim Eijlander is a versatile Dutch cellist and music educator, renowned for his performances as a soloist and chamber musician across Europe, Asia, and the United States. He has collaborated with ensembles and musicians such as the Borodin Quartet, Lisa Larsson, Robert Holl, Randall Scarlata, Inon Barnatan, Karl Leister, and Godfried Hoogeveen. Additionally, he has worked closely with composers including Henri Dutilleux, György Kurtág, Sofia Gubaidulina, Louis Andriessen, and Joey Roukens.

Eijlander received his musical training in Utrecht, Amsterdam, and Berlin. In 2000, he founded the Rubens Quartet, with which he performed internationally until 2015, winning prizes at competitions in Austria and the Czech Republic. The quartet appeared in prestigious venues such as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Tonhalle Zürich, Berliner Philharmonie, and the Rudolfinum in Prague.

Since 2019, Eijlander has been a professor of cello at Codarts Rotterdam, where he also represents the lower strings department. Since 2021, he has also been a professor at the Royal Conservatory of Namur. He regularly gives guest masterclasses at conservatories in Indiana, Milwaukee, Oklahoma, Ljubljana, and the Dutch String Quartet Academy.

As a soloist, Eijlander has performed with orchestras including the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, the Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Romanian State Philharmonic Orchestra Tirgu Mures. He is a frequent guest at international festivals such as Sitka (Alaska), Prussia Cove (UK), Schleswig-Holstein, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Germany).

His discography includes recordings of J.S. Bach’s complete cello suites (2015), "Sequentia!" featuring caprices by Joseph dall’Abaco and Alfredo Piatti (2017), and "Dark Fire" (2020), a musical journey bridging the East and West.

When he was 16 year old Siebe Henstra constructed his first harpsichord against the advice of his parents, but Siebe persisted. After school he studied the harpsichord with Gustav Leonhardt and Ton Koopman at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam. He has won prizes at competitions in Edinburgh (1982) and Amsterdam (1987).

Since then, he has played with many ensembles; the best known are the Netherlands Bach Society (www.allofbach.com), the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, the Leonhardt Consort, Tokyo Baroque, La Petite Bande, the Ricercar Consort, and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

He worked as continuo player with several famous directors – e.g. Frans Brüggen, Gustav Leonhardt and Jos van Veldhoven- with whom he co-operated for recordings (CD, radio, TV) and opera-productions (for Ricercar, Denon, Philips, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Sony and Telefunken), in most of the European countries, Israel, Japan, Russia, Mexico and the United States. Also as a soloist on harpsichord and clavichord he gave numerous performances throughout the world.

He is continuo player (organ and harpsichord) of the Netherlands Bach Society, forms a duo with Lucia Swarts and forms the duo ‘Der prallende Doppelschlag’ with Menno van Delft on two clavichords, harpsichords or organs.

Siebe Henstra has given a number of masterclasses in Finland, Germany, Italy, Portugal, France, Japan, the USA, Mexico, Catalunya, and the Czech Republic. He teaches harpsichord since 1988 at the Utrecht conservatory and was professor 2017-2021 at the Royal Conservatoire, The Hague. He is asked regularly as member of the jury for competitions as well as for examinations of several conservatories.

As a talented pianist, Hua-Hsuan Lee has been awarded prizes in numerous national and international competitions in her young age, including the first prize of International Cross-Strait International Music Competition(2015), the first prize of International Violin & Piano Competition of Vienna (2011), the first prize of Taiwan Music Competition (2007) , the second prize of Taiwan National Student Competition(2007) and as 3ème Prix à l’unanimité of International Music Competition (2022).

In 2016, while she studied for her master degree with Russian-German pianist Stepan Simonian in Hochschule fur Musik und Theater Hamburg, her unique music talent and soulful playing was discovered by mastro Jeroen den Herder. Following that she has formed the cello/piano duo with Mr. den Herder and has been invited by numerous International festivals giving performances in Spain, Turkey, Netherlands. Since 2020, they have created their own concert series “Den Herder op Zondag”, where the diverse music has been provided to the public. The repertoire amounts virtuoso classical music to contemporary music.

Next to her solo career, Hua-Hsuan Lee has extensive experience working as collaborative pianist with promising musicians and teachers, for instance Leonid Gorokhov, Jakob Koranyi, Gavriel Lipkind, Pieter Wispelwey. Since 2017 she collobrate as pianist in residence of Cellofestival Zutphen for masterclasses and concerts.

Being a highly sensitive and enthusiastic artist, she has an unusual sensation and deep desire of searching for different artistic ways of self-expression. Her curious and challenging heart leads her to CelloWercken, where she can express freely in her unique voice and share her warm heart with people.