Uxía Martínez Botana

Selected by the American bass magazine “No treble” as one of the world top 10 bass players and recognized by the international critics for her «great intensity and exceptional technique», Uxía Martínez Botana (born in Spain in 1988) started her double bass studies at the early age of 6 with the bass player of the Moscow Virtuosos Orchestra, Witold Patsevich. She continued her studies in Spain and later in the Netherlands at the Conservatorium Van Amsterdam where she finished her double bass bachelor with Peter Stotijn and Baroque bass with Maggie Urquhart.

She got her first professional contract with the Symphony Orchestra of Galicia (Spain) at the age of 16. Later, Uxía has worked as a bass player in orchestras such as The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, The Netherlands Philharmonisch Orkest under the direction of Marc Albrecht and The Amsterdam Sinfonietta under the direction of Candida Thompson.

Uxia has been Guest Principal Double Bass at the Philharmonie Zuid-Nederland and she is the Principal Double Bass of the Brussels Philarmonic for the 2016/2017 season. Since January 2016 she is as well the Principal Double Bass of the Weinberger Kammerorchester (Zurich) under the direction of Gábor Takács-Nagy.

Uxía Martinez Botana was the first Spanish Bass Player invited principal Double Bass of the Grammy Award Winner Kremerata Baltica under the direction of Gidon Kremer, working with soloists such as Martha Argerich, Emmanuel Pahud, Khatia Buniatishvili, Daniel Barenboim, Mario Brunello, Mikhail Pletnev and many others renowned artists.

Beside her work in orchestras, Uxía Martínez Botana has developed a brilliant career as a soloist and as a chamber musician. As a bass soloist, some of her outstanding performances were the premiere of works by composer Wladimir Rosinskij in the festival “Two days and Two nights of New Music” Odessa (Ukraine). Her interpretation of Parable XVII by Vincent Persichetti has been acclaimed by the international critic. She had her solo debut at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with New European Ensemble (Netherlands) in 2014 and she has coming up engagements for next seasons with the Symphony Orchestra of Galicia under the direction of Dima Slobodeniouk and solo recitals in the Luxembourg Philharmonie Hall, Netherlands, Belgium and Spain.

As a chamber musician Uxía has played with prominent musicians such as Julia Fischer, Anna Chumachenko, Yuri Bashmet, Natalia Gutman, Andreas Schiff, Christian Tetzlaff, Lars Vogt, Nobuko Imai, Tabea Zimmermann, Polina Leschenko, Natascha Kruditskaya, Philippe Graffin, Gary Hoffman, David Cohen, Kian Soltani, Aaron Pilsan, Daniel Rowland, Antje Weithaas or Tatiana Masurenko and has participated in projects such as "Tango Factory" with Marcello Nisinman (bandoneon) and Frans Helmerson (cello).

Uxía Martínez Botana is regulary invited to participate in important festivals all over Europe : The Gergiev Festival (Netherlands), Schleswig Holstein International Chamber Music Festival, Spanungen (Germany), Kuhmo International Chamber Music Festival (Finland), the Kronberg Academy Chamber Music Connects the World and Masters in Performance (Germany), Musiq 3 Festival (Belgium), Stellenbosch International music Festival (South Africa), Schubertiade Schwarzenberg Hohenems (Austria) among many others.

In 2014 she received the Gustav Mahler scholarship by the Claudio Abbado Foundation among 10 prominent musicians of Europe in Bolzano (Italy) under the direction of Daniel Harding.

In July 2015 she has been selected by the famous German brand of Strings Pirastro as one of their sponsored artist: uxía Martínez Botana - 2015 Pirastro Artist.

Uxia was selected as the artistic image of one of the most prestigious halls in The Netherlands - the Tivolibrendenburg in Utrecht for the season 2015/2016. In 2016 she has been nominated as “artist of the year” in Japan by the Japanese music magazine “The Walkers”. In 2015 she has been front cover of the German music magazine “Fono Forum” and in 2012 in Ukraine as well “Artist of the Year” by the national music magazine “Muzika”.

Uxia is as well the founder of the Rubik Ensemble formed by six international soloists: Nikita Boriso Glebsky (violin), Solenne Paidassi (violin), David Cohen (cello), Dana Zemtsov (viola), Uxia Martinez Botana (Double Bass) and Andreas Hering (piano).

In February 2016 she was selected by the National Dutch Musical Instrument Foundation as one of their sponsored artists (uxía Martínz Botana - 2016 Musiekintrumenten Fonds Artist), who loaned her the English Double Bass known as “The English Lady“ (1800 c.a). She also plays a “Ludwig Neuner” (1854) loaned by a private sponsor.

Uxia’s big passion for film music drove her to collaborate in many recordings of soundtracks with the Netherlands Film Festival such as the movie “No estoy muerto, solo estoy dormido” (“I am not dead, I am just asleep”) awarded at the “Berlinale Film Festival”.