Uxía Martínez Botana

She has been lauded by international critics as one of the world's best double bassists and is known for her ‘great intensity and exceptional technique’. At 23 years of age, she became the first principal double bassist of Grammy-winning chamber orchestra Kremerata Baltica, with conductor Gidon Kremer, and worked with soloists such as Martha Argerich, Emmanuel Pahud, Khatia Buniatishvili, Daniel Barenboim, Mario Brunello, Mikhail Pletnev, Heinrich Schiff, and many other renowned artists. In January 2016, she became the principal double bassist of the Weinberger Chamber Orchestra (Zurich), with conductor Gábor Takács-Nagy, and she held the same position in the Brussels Philharmonic until 2020. In addition, she has been a member and double-bass soloist of the Oxford Philharmonic since 2019. Her orchestral work includes the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Netherlands Philharmonic, the Budapest Festival Orchestra with conductor Ivan Fischer, and, as guest principal double bassist, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and the Belgian National Orchestra. She also teaches double bass at ESMUC College of Music of Catalonia in Barcelona (Spain) and is a guest teacher at Barenboim-Said Foundation. In 2021, she joined the Stauffer Centre Academy for Strings in Cremona (Italy), along with other world-class artists such as Sol Gabetta, Michael Barenboim, Lisa Batiashvili, Daniel Hope, Julian Rachlin, Lawrence Power, Antoine Tamestit, Steven Isserlis, Mischa Maisky, and Alissa Weilerstein. In addition to her orchestral work, Uxía Martínez Botana has forged a brilliant career as a soloist and chamber musician. As a double-bass soloist, her 2010 interpretation of Vincent Persichetti's Parable XVII was praised by international critics for its ‘astounding emotional intensity and masterful command of the instrument’. In 2012, she premiered works of composer Wladimir Rosinskij at the festival Two Days and Two Nights of New Music in Odesa (Ukraine), giving performances described as ‘powerful and impressive’. In 2014, she debuted as a soloist at Amsterdam's Concertgebouw alongside ‘The New European Ensemble’. In February 2017, she made her debut as a soloist with Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia and conductor Dima Slobodeniouk, premiering works of Wladimir Rosinskij. 2018 marked her solo debut with the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra alongside violinist Josef Spacek. In 2019, she debuted as a soloist with Budapest's Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra, followed later that year by her debut with the Stellenbosch Chamber Orchestra in South Africa. She has given solo recitals in the Philharmonie Luxembourg music hall, in the Netherlands, in Belgium, and in Spain. As a chamber musician, Uxía has performed with acclaimed artists such as Maxim Vengerov, Veronica Eberle, Julia Fischer, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Anna Chumachenko, Yuri Bashmet, Natalia Gutman, András Schiff, Christian Tetzlaff, Lars Vogt, Nobuko Imai, Tabea Zimmermann, Gary Hoffman, Kian Soltani, Antje Weithaas, Mischa Maisky, Sol Gabetta, Bertrand Chamayou, Alina Ibragimova, Laurence Power, Amihai Grosz, and Frans Helmerson. In 2022, she teamed up with Grammy-nominated mandolinist Avi Avital and his chamber ensemble ‘Between Worlds’, launching in 2015 a recording on the Deutsche Grammophon label. Uxía Martínez Botana is regularly invited to participate in important festivals throughout Europe: the Gergiev Festival (Netherlands), Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival (Germany), Spannungen (Germany), Gstaad Menuhin Festival (Switzerland), Solsberg (Switzerland), Kuhmo International Chamber Music Festival (Finland), Kronberg Academy's ‘Chamber Music Connects the World’ and ‘Masters in Performance’ series (Frankfurt, Germany), Musiq3 Festival (Belgium), Stellenbosch International Music Festival (South Africa), and Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg and Hohenems (Austria), to name but a few. She is also the founder of Rubik Ensemble, a group comprised of six international soloists: Nikita Borisoglebsky (violin), Solenne Paidassi (violin), Dana Zemtsov (viola), David Cohen (cello), Uxia Martínez Botana (double bass), and Andreas Hering (piano).In February 2016, she was chosen by the National Dutch Musical Instrument Foundation to be one of its sponsored artists: Uxía Martinez Botana. 2016 Artist of the Musical Instruments Fund. As a result, she received on loan the English double bass known as ‘The English Lady’ (c. 1800), which is part of the ‘Willem Vogelaar’ collection. She also plays a ‘Ludwig Neuner’ bass (1854) on loan from a private sponsor. Uxía's passion for film music has led her to collaborate in the recording of many soundtracks with the Netherlands Film Festival, such as the film ‘No Estoy Muerto, solo Estoy Dormido’ by Dutch-Mexican filmmaker Juan Sebastián López Maas, winner of the Canon Award for young talent at the Berlinale Film Festival.Awards:

• 2012: named ‘artist of the year’ by the Ukrainian music magazine ‘Muzika’.
• 2014: awarded a Gustav Mahler grant by the Claudio Abbado Foundation among 10 prominent European musicians in Bolzano (Italy) under the direction of conductor Daniel Harding.
• 2015: chosen by the popular German brand of strings ‘Pirastro’ as a sponsored artist: Uxía Martínez Botana, 2015 Pirastro artist. She was also featured on the cover of the German music magazine ‘Fono Forum’. Uxía's image was used to represent one of the most prestigious concert halls in the Netherlands, the TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht, for its 2015-16 season: Uxía Martínez Botana, image of the TivoliVredenburg music complex 2015/2016.
• 2016: named ‘artist of the year’ by the Japanese music magazine ‘The Walker's’.

In September 2016, she was chosen to appear in that year's edition of the book ‘Per Archi’ by the Arts Department of the University of Florence. A featured article in the publication described her as ‘one of the best double bassists of the new millennium’.