I play a 1754 viola by the violin maker Martinus Mathias Fichtl, among the best early Viennese builders. Like most Viennese violin makers of the period, Fichtl built instruments in the line of violin maker Jacobus Stainer. Coincidentally, during my audition for the orchestra, I also played on a copy of Jacobus Stainer built by German violin maker Thilo Kürten. An old colleague wanted to get rid of the Fichtl viola and I was the first to take over the viola with chocolate brown lacquer, fine playing characteristics and clear sound projection.

1981

Jan Buizer received his first violin lessons at the age of seven. He studied violin with Natalia Morozova and Florian Donderer and viola with Gisella Bergman at the Noord Nederlands Conservatorium, and at the Conservatorium of Amsterdam he studied viola with Nobuko Imai and Sven Arne Tepl. As a soloist, he performed Bruch's Double Concerto for viola and clarinet, Khachaturian's Violin Concerto and Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for violin and viola. Prior to his employment with the Residentie Orkest in 2008, he was Principal of the Magogo Chamber Orchestra in Tilburg.

Rachmaninov. I really enjoy listening to his four piano concertos with Rachmaninov himself as soloist or with Horowitz in the lead role. The music grabs you, carries you away and doesn't let you go.