Esther Apituley

Esther Apituley was born in Amsterdam. She started playing the violin at the age of twelve and quickly moved on to the viola.
She graduated from the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam, having been taught by Mischa Geller, and went on to study with Bruno Giuranna at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin.
Esther Apituley was one of the instigators behind the Microkosmos project, to music by Béla Bartòk, a performance with visual elements by Jeroen Henneman. The NPS broadcast Microkosmos as a series.
Apituley presented the TV programme ‘Reiziger in Muziek’ (Traveller in music) in 2000.
Esther Apituley has appeared as a soloist with ensembles including the Dutch National Ballet Orchestra, North Holland Philharmonic, Metropole Orchestra and the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra. She has performed viola concertos by Berlioz, Bartok and Chiel Meijering, Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante and Lachrymae by Britten.
Ms. Apituley also makes regular international solo appearances in Japan, Spain, Germany, the Czech Republic and elsewhere. In the summers of 2007 and 2008, she gave concerts and masterclasses at the International Music Festival in Campos do Jordao, Brazil.
Esther Apituley is now well known for her quite unique way of presenting concerts. For instance, her appearances with the Amsterdam Viola Quartet also represent a particular break from tradition. The Quartet’s repertoire is wide-ranging, from baroque through classical to modern and close harmony.
They have now had considerable success at home and abroad, including appearances in Morocco, the Czech Republic, Austria and Cyprus, and a lengthier tour of Indonesia in 2010. The Amsterdam Viola Quartet is also regularly joined by guest artistes, such as the tap dancer Peter Kuit, actor Hans Dagelet, whistler Geert Chatrou or mime artist Rob van Reijn. The Quartet has now given thirty or so concerts with actors Hans Dagelet and Lizzy Timmers, in “De Hydropathen”.
Her first CD, 'Violent Viola', appeared in 2005 and was followed in 2007 by 'Viola Voila', to very warm reviews in all the newspapers. Her third CD, including works by Brahms and Poulenc appeared in 2011.
Esther Apituley was appointed artistic director of the ViolaViola Foundation in 2009. This Foundation is devoted to promoting the viola, and also to encouraging new audiences, partly through the medium of the Viola Festival. After successful runs in 2012 and 2014, the third edition of the festival – entitled Esther Apituley’s Locomotive – will be held in 2016.