Hi! I’m Diego, and since 2024, I’ve been fortunate enough to borrow this amazing violin from Marten Cornelissen of Het Muziekinstrumentenfonds.
My parents moved to the Netherlands from Spain a few years before I was born, so the Netherlands has become my home. My grandfather was a trumpet player himself and performed in several orchestras and bands throughout Spain. My mother also studied piano for a few years at the conservatory in Seville, but to my great sadness, she never pursued it further. My brother and sister both attended the PI (a preparatory program for preschoolers at the Royal Conservatory) and went on to the Jong KC afterward. So my parents were also very happy when I was allowed to choose an instrument and a concert at the PI.
So ever since I was five, I’ve been working on improving my playing every day to reach an ever-higher level. I’ve been studying at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague since 2014. My first teacher was Emma Rhebergen, and in 2016 I began studying with Kerstin Hoelen; after a successful audition, I started taking lessons with Joseph Puglia in 2026 as part of the Bachelor’s program in Classical Violin. I’ve also taken regular lessons from other teachers at the Conservatory, such as Elise ten Westenend, Liesbeth Ackermans, and Jenna Sherry.
From 2022 to 2026, I was a member of the AKO (Atheneum Chamber Orchestra), the orchestra of JongKC, where I had the honor of serving as concertmaster and soloist in the fall of 2025. In addition to other small orchestral projects, I’ve also been a member of the JON (Youth Orchestra of the Netherlands) since 2025.
In the meantime, I’ve also participated in several music courses: three times in a Spanish course in Granada, organized by the JOSG (Granada Youth Orchestra), and twice in the German village of Goch, at Stringtime Niederrhein, a course with string players from top conservatories in Germany, Poland, and the Netherlands; there, I also took lessons from Friederieke Starkloff. At the Conservatory, I also had the opportunity to take master classes with, among others, Liza Ferschtmann and SongHa Choi.
In 2024, Kerstin and I decided it was a good time to take the next step, and we ended up at the Musical Instrument Fund. There, I had the opportunity to try out a wide variety of violins. And after some time spent thinking, trying them out, and thinking some more, I decided to borrow this Marten Cornelissen. I am very grateful to Het Muziekinstrumentenfonds for this.
This violin is one of the few I’ve seen that can combine an incredibly warm tone with a room-filling projection. Achieving these two remarkable qualities from a single violin is very difficult, but also important, because it allows me to much more easily determine how broad or focused my sound is, and what tonal colors I want to draw out of the instrument. Furthermore, this great versatility allows me to play all pieces from the violin repertoire without having to compromise due to differences in, for example, historical periods.
