I will offer both 8’ and 16’ violone in different tunings.

The course material will be ranging from simple basso continuo lines suitable to musicians new to the violone who have some knowledge of double bass playing, to (Northern German) music for the violone including e.g. Buxtehude sonata for Violone and Viola da Gamba, and Zelenka sonatas with oboe and bassoon.

I can bring two violones for those who cannot travel with their own instruments or who do not own one.

The course is suitable for various levels including curious amateurs, advanced conservatory students, and professional bassists interested in the violone.

CV

Margaret Urquhart is the first bassist of the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, of which she has been a member since 1986. Since studying double bass with Anthony Woodrow and viola da gamba with Anneke Pols in The Hague, she has performed with many leading early music ensembles world-wide, including the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, the Nederlandse Bachvereniging, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the English Concert, and Collegium Vocale Gent.  She teaches violone at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, and the Amsterdam Conservatory, and has given violone master-classes in China, the USA, and across Europe. She is presently completing a PhD on the violone in Bach’s music at the Orpheus Institute Gent and Leiden University. She owns three original early basses: a Gagliano 16’ bass, an 8’ Krouchdaler and an 8’ Busch, and performs on four stringed 16’ tuning, Viennese tuning and various 8’ violone tunings.