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.

2008

Jan Buizer began taking violin lessons at the age of seven. He studied violin with Natalia Morozova and Florian Donderer and viola with Gisella Bergman at the North Netherlands Conservatory, and at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam he studied viola with Nobuko Imai and Sven Arne Tepl. As a soloist, he has performed Bruch’s Double Concerto for Viola and Clarinet, Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto , and Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola. Prior to joining the Residentie Orkest 2008, he served Principal 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.