Quirine Viersen
cello

Cellist Quirine Viersen was taught by Jan Decroos and Dimitri Ferschtman. Heinrich Schiff was her all-encompassing mentor, who learned to make her music and enriched her playing through the famous "Navarra" technique. At the age of 16, Quirine was the youngest prize winner ever at the Scheveningen International Music Competition. She also won prizes at the Rostropovich Competition Paris 1990, the International Cello Competition Helsinki 1991 and the Tchaikovsky Competition Moscow 1994. In 1994 she received the most prestigious state prize for classical music, the Dutch Music Prize.

Quirine has performed with many orchestras conducted by various conductors such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Herbert Blomstedt, Ingo Metzmacher and Bernard Haitink, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra / Marc Albrecht, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra / Valery Gergiev, Frankfurt Radio Symphony / Hugh Wolff, Wiener Kammerorchester / Heinrich Schiff, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra / Jean Fournet and Wiener Philharmoniker / Zubin Mehta. Quirine worked with Antje Weithaas, Thomas Beijer, Leonidas Kavakos and Liza Ferschtman and was invited to the Delft Chamber Music Festival, Rheingau Music Festival, Mondsee Tage, Luzerner Festwochen and the Salzburger Festspiele. She performed in duo with pianists such as Silke Avenhaus and Enrico Pace.

Quirine plays the "Joseph Guarnerius Filius Andreae" from 1715, previously played by André Navarra. It was kindly made available by the National Musical Instruments Fund on the recommendation of Heinrich Schiff. Schiff gave her one of his bows for this instrument.