Uxía Martínez Botana


Uxía Martínez Botana is a Spanish double bass player. She is the principal double-bassist with the Brussels Philharmonic.

Early life and education

Uxía Martínez Botana was born in A Coruña, Spain. Her father was a university professor and specialised in ancient languages. Her mother came from a Jewish-Italian family but raised in Spain. She was a government official and also an amateur pianist.
Martínez Botana started her music studies of double bass and piano at the age of 6 at the elementary music conservatory Cristóbal Halffter in Ponferrada. Her very first teacher was Witold Patsevich – the principal bass player from the Moscow Virtuosi orchestra – and his wife pianist Tatiana Patsevich. As Martínez Botana admits, Patsevich has been her biggest influence in creating her own sound and music individuality.
At the age of 12 she moved to A Coruña where she continued her studies at Youth Orchestra of Sinfónica de Galicia. Then, at 18 she moved to Amsterdam where she finished her bachelor and master studies at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.
Her teachers included Edicson Ruiz, double-bassist with the Berlin Philharmonic; Janne Saksala, principal double bass at the Berlin Philharmonic; and Peter Stotijn, the former principal bass player of the Hague Residentie Orchestra.

Career

Orchestral performance

Martínez Botana signed her first professional contract with the Sinfónica de Galicia in Spain at the age of 16. Later she has worked as a bass player in orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Marc Albrecht and the under the direction of Candida Thompson. Martínez Botana has been a guest principal double bass at the and at the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. She is currently a Principal Double Bass of the Brussels Philharmonic. As a part of this orchestra Martinez Botana recorded three CD's in 2017 and 2018: the CHOC-winning Deutsche Grammophon Prokofiev: Romantic Suites with conductor Stéphane Denève, the Warner Classics Piazzolla / Galliano: Concertos for Badoneon & Accordion with conductor Diego Matheuz and accordionist Gwen Cresens and the ERATO Cinema recorded by violinist Renaud Capuçon and the Brussels Philharmonic under the baton of Stéphane Denève. Since January 2016 she has also been a Principal Double Bass of the Zürich-based Weinberger Kammerorchester under the direction of Gábor Takács-Nagy.
Martínez Botana was the first Spanish musician invited as a principal double bass player to the Grammy Award winner Kremerata Baltica under the direction of Gidon Kremer. As a part of this orchestra she worked with soloists such as Martha Argerich, Emmanuel Pahud, Khatia Buniatishvili, Daniel Barenboim, Mario Brunello, Mikhail Pletnev, Heinrich Schiff, and others.

Chamber and solo performance

Beside orchestral performing, Martínez Botana has developed solo career and now often comes to the stage as a chamber musician. The list of her most notable concert appearances includes the premiere of works by composer Vladimir Rosinskij at the "Two Days and Two Nights of New Music" festival in Odessa, Ukraine. In 2010 her interpretation of the Parable XVII by Vincent Persichetti was appreciated by critics. In 2014 Martínez Botana had her solo debut at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with the New European Ensemble. In February 2017 she presented Rosinskij's works with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia under the baton of Dima Slobodeniouk. Martínez Botana was also giving solo concerts in Luxembourg, Netherlands, Belgium and Spain. In 2018 she was invited as a principle double bass to the French chamber ensemble for a series of concerts from 11 to 13 January.
As a chamber musician Martínez Botana performed with prominent artists including Julia Fischer, Ana Chumachenko, Yuri Bashmet, Natalia Gutman, Andras Schiff, Christian Tetzlaff, Lars Vogt, Nobuko Imai, Tabea Zimmermann, Polina Leschenko, Philippe Graffin, Gary Hoffman, David Cohen, Kian Soltani, Aaron Pilsan, Antje Weithaas, Alexander Buzlov, Alissa Margulis, Mischa Maisky and Tatiana Masurenko. Among others, she took part in the Tango Factory project with Marcello Nisinman and Frans Helmerson. Also, she collaborated with British conductor Simon Rattle performing the Metamorphosen by Richard Strauss.
In 2014 Martínez Botana founded the Rubik Ensemble along with the international team of five young soloists: Nikita Boriso-Glebsky, Solenne Paidassi, David Cohen, Dana Zemtsov and Andreas Hering. Performing on different stages since that time, the Rubik Ensemble has gained positive feedback from audiences and press. The ensemble is named after Rubik's Cube.
In April, 2019 Uxia Martínez had her solo debut with the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra under tha baton of Josef Špaček. The programme also included Giovanni Bottesini's Gran Duo Concertante for violin and double bass.
In August, 2019 she performed the same piece by Bottesini with Josef Špaček as a violinist and the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra under Robert Farkas.. Also, in that period Martínez Botana debuted at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy with Alina Ibragimova, Charlotte Saluste-Bridoux, Lawrence Power, Sol Gabetta, Bertrand Chamayou.
In May 2020, due to the quarentine of the covid-19 pandemic, together with the violinist Niklas Liepe's "The new Paganini project" playing a Fazil Say composition from Amsterdam. The performance has been recorded and published in July 2020 by Sony Classical.

Teaching

Since 2018 she is double bass professor in Barcelona at the Catalonia College of Music.

Instrument

In February 2016 Martínez Botana was selected by the National Dutch Musical Instrument Foundation as one of the sponsored artists. The foundation loaned her the double bass "English Lady" which belongs to the Willem Vogelaar collection.
«What does make this instrument special is the elegant and refined tone very appropriate for solo and chamber music that you can provide. Moreover, it's the instrument with a huge range of sound colors, something quite demanded on double basses and rare to find».
Martínez Botana also plays the "Ludwig Neuner" double bass loaned by a private sponsor.

Touring

Martínez Botana regularly takes part in festivals over Europe: the Gergiev Festival, Schleswig Holstein International Chamber Music Festival, Spannungen, Kuhmo International Chamber Music Festival, The Kronberg Academy "Chamber Music Connects the World" and "Masters in Performance of the Kronberg Academy", Musiq'3 Festival, Stellenbosch International Music Festival Schubertiade Schwarzenberg Hohenems, among others.

Repertoire

Martínez Botana's repertoire embraces music of different countries, genres and epochs. She performs compositions by Giovanni Battista degli Antonii, Domenico Gabrielli, Georg Philipp Telemann, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Baptist Wanhal, Franz Anton Hoffmeister, Niccolò Paganini, Ludwig van Beethoven, Giovanni Bottesini, Gioachino Rossini, César Franck, Johannes Brahms, Adolf Mišek, Max Bruch, Gabriel Fauré, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Enrique Granados, Paul Hindemith, Hans Fryba, Erwin Schulhoff, Vincent Persichetti, Mieczysław Weinberg, Virgilio Mortari, Serge Koussevitzky, Astor Piazzolla, Michel van der Aa, Edgar Meyer, Nino Rota, Hans Werner Henze, Sofia Gubaidulina, Frank Proto, Pēteris Vasks, David Ellis, Teppo Hauta-aho and Emil Tabakov. In December 2011 the video of her interpretation of the Parable XVII by Vincent Persichetti was chosen by the American bass magazine No Treble for its Top Ten most-read features of the week.

Soundtracks

Martínez Botana's interest in film music led her to collaborations with the Netherlands Film Festival. She participated in recording soundtracks to a number of films including No estoy muerto, solo estoy dormido by de Dutch/Mexican filmmaker Juan Sebastian Lopez Maas who was awarded at the Berlinale Film Festival with the Canon Award for young talents.
As a part of the Brussels Philharmonic she has participated in recording of many soundtracks including the Oscar award-winning soundtrack of the film The Artist by Ludovic Bource.

Achievements

Very committed to the fight against cancer, she collaborates closely through her music with associations working in that field.