Jobine Siekman, a talented cellist, is a highly sought-after soloist and chamber musician in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. She has won prizes both as a soloist (at the 2016 National Cello Competition of the Amsterdam Cello Biennale) and as a member of various ensembles, such as the Alkyona Quartet, the Delphine Trio, and the Chloé Trio. In December 2020, BBC Music Magazine published an interview with Jobine as a “Rising Star.”
My instrument is the Lefèbvre cello, for which I am very grateful to the Musical Instrument Fund. The character of this cello suits me very well, and I get along with it exceptionally well. The instrument has many facets, ranging from powerful expressions to lovely melodies, and thus brings my imagination to life. It’s a pleasure to play it every day!
I’ve also had my bow on loan from the Musical Instrument Fund since March 2023: a J. Fétique from the first half of the 20th century, which was donated earlier this year and has just been restored by Andreas Grütter. I’d had the previous bow I was playing with since I was 11, but it didn’t work very well with my current cello—which I’ve been playing since 2019—and was certainly not of the same caliber as my cello. I spent more than two years searching for a bow, scouring auctions, trying bows from modern makers and antique bows from dealers, but every time a bow suited my cello well and I felt comfortable playing it, it turned out to be beyond my financial means. When I had the chance to try this bow from Het Muziekinstrumentenfonds in March, I immediately noticed how well it suited me and how clear and elegant the sound was in combination with my cello. It became clear fairly quickly that this bow was the right match, and I’ve been enjoying playing with it every day ever since. In addition, I now receive even more compliments about my cello at concerts—which, in my opinion, are partly due to the bow—a difference that the audience doesn’t always notice, but which makes a huge difference to the performer.
In 2019, Jobine won the Mills Williams Junior Fellowship at the Royal College of Music in London. There, she had previously earned a Bachelor of Music degree under the guidance of Melissa Phelps and completed her Master of Performance degree with Richard Lester as an Irene Hanson scholar. Prior to her Bachelor’s degree, she studied with Harro Ruijsenaars, Lucia Swarts, and Dmitri Ferschtman.
After receiving the RCM Anna Shuttleworth Prize in 2016 for her interpretation of Bach, she was invited to perform Bach’s Second Suite at the RCM Showcase concert at Wigmore Hall. In 2019, she made her debut as a soloist with the Simon Bolivar Orchestra in Schumann’s Cello Concerto, conducted by Jesús Uzcategui. She has also performed the cello concertos by Haydn, Saint-Saëns, Lalo, and Shostakovich, as well as Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, as a soloist with orchestra. The RCM London filmed her live performance of Bach and modern commissioned works on the famous Amati cello piccolo for the series “In Focus.” She is also a regular guest on programs on Radio 4, BBC Radio 3, and on television on “Podium Klassiek.” In recent years, she has recorded music several times at Abbey Road Studios with pianist Matthew Lam; these tracks are available on all streaming platforms. She launched her own concert series in Groningen, in which she performed the complete cycle of Bach’s Suites. After three successful seasons, the concerts will continue this season as the Focus Concert Series.
Jobine is a passionate chamber musician and regularly gives concerts with her ensembles in the Netherlands and abroad. Highlights have included performances at Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Elgar Room, and Tivoli Vredenburg. Recently, the Delphine Trio won the 2025 Royal Over-Seas League Music Competition in the “Mixed Ensembles” category. Last year, that ensemble also released their debut CD on the TRPTK label. She is a co-founder of the StringWood Ensemble, with which she received one of the D.F.E. Meerburg Prizes last January. In 2021, the Chloé Trio won the RPS Henderson Ensemble Prize, was selected as Kirckman Concert Trust Artists, and more recently as Tunnel Trust Award Artists. In 2023, the Alkyona Quartet was invited to perform for two weeks at the Quartetthaus in Melbourne, Australia. Jobine is a guest concertmaster with the Ataneres Ensemble and also performs with the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra. She does not limit herself to classical music alone, but also plays in the South American band Quimantu and performs on the baroque cello.
In July 2022, she was a guest at the Canadian chamber music festival “Music at the Sea,” where she gave numerous concerts. She has also performed at festivals such as Ticino Musica in Switzerland, Hvide Sande in Denmark, the Stift International Music Festival, the European Chamber Music Academy in Manchester and Fiesole, the Holland Music Sessions, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, and the Kronberg Academy cello masterclasses.
