“Uxía plays bass with such elegance and agility
that she reminds me more of a violinist rather than to a bass player”
IVRY GITLIS, VIOLINIST
Selected by the American bass magazine “No treble” as one of the world top 10 bass players and recognised by the international critics for her «great intensity and exceptional technique»
Uxía Martínez Botana (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.
Uxía has worked as a bass player in orchestras such as The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and she has been the principal double Bass of the Brussels Philharmonic until 2019.
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 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 Baremboin, Mario Brunello, Mikhail Pletnev, Heinrich Schiff , Simon Rattle and many other renowed artists.
Beside her work in orchestras, Uxía Martínez Botana has developed a brilliant career as a soloist and as a chamber musician. As bass soloist, some of her outstanding performances were in 2012 the premiere of works by composer Wladimir Rosinskij in the festival ¨Two days and Two nights of New Music” Odessa (Ukraine) acclaimed as ¨powerful and breathtaking”. In 2010 her interpretation of Parable XVII by Vincent Persichetti has been acclaimed by the international critic as ¨astonishing emotional intensity and master control over the instrument”.
In 2014 she had her solo debut at the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam) with “The New European Ensemble”. In February 2017 she had as well her solo debut with the Symphony Orchestra of Galicia under the baton of Dima Slobodeniouk premiering woks by Wladimir Rosinskij.
Her solo debut with Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra (Budapest) and Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra (Prague) happened in 2019.
She has also performed solo recitals in the Luxembourg Philharmonie Hall, The Netherlands, Belgium and Spain. As well she has been selected “artist of the year” in Japan by the Japanese music magazine “The walker’s”. In September 2016 she was included in the annual book “Per Archi” by the arts department of the University of Florence. They dedicated her an article inside of the book as “greatest double bass players of the new millennium”.
The National Dutch Musical Instrument Foundation selected her in February 2016 as one of their sponsored artist and loaned her the English Double Bass known as “The English Lady ¨(1800 c.a), the instrument belongs to the ¨Willem Vogelaar¨ collection.
She also plays a “Ludwig Neuner” (1854) loaned by a private sponsor.
