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The Complete Bach Cello Suites

Tanya Tomkins baroque cello

Bach’s six Suites for Unaccompanied cello are a highlight of the literature for the instrument.
For this unique 2-concert event at the Cellar, acclaimed American cellist Tanya Tomkins will perform all six Suites, on baroque cello and on 5-string violoncello piccolo.

Tanya Tomkins, a virtuoso on both the baroque and modern cello, is equally at home playing a Bach cello suite in an intimate house concert or anchoring the cello section as principal cellist of the internationally renowned Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra on concert stages around the world. NRC Handelsblad (The Netherlands) describes her as “a cellist with a very special and unusual intensity”, and the Cleveland Plain Dealer calls her “a performer who combines an intense dramatic fire with Apollonian poise”.

Tomkins studied in the Netherlands with renowned cellist and early music specialist Anner Bylsma. She received her Soloist Diploma from The Royal Conservatory of Music at The Hague. Living in Europe for 14 years, she immersed herself in the study of early music and particularly music of the baroque period. She founded the Trio d’Amsterdam, which toured extensively throughout Europe and subsequently made its New York debut at the Frick Collection.

In 2001 Tomkins won the Erwin Bodky Competition for early music soloists in Boston; she was the first cellist to be awarded the prize. As a performer of Baroque music, Tomkins serves as co-principal cellist of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and the Portland Baroque Orchestra. She has been featured as soloist with Philharmonia Baroque, American Bach Soloists, the Oregon Bach Festival, the Mozart Festival in San Luis Obispo, California, the Berkeley Early Music Festival and the Boston Early Music Festival.
Immersion in early music was not Tomkins’s exclusive focus, however, and, like her teacher Bylsma, she did not neglect the repertoire for the modern cello. She became equally fluent in this music and toured as a soloist and as a member of the Euridice String Quartet and the SoLaRe Trio.

As an active recitalist and chamber musician on the modern cello, Tomkins has appeared to critical acclaim throughout Europe, Israel, and the United States. She has performed at major concert halls, including the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Recital Hall, New York City’s Lincoln Center as part of the “Great Performances” series, and the 92nd Street Y for the “Meet the Virtuoso” series, also in New York City. Music festival appearances include the Moab Music Festival in Moab, Utah and Music in the Vineyards in Napa, California, and the Umeå Chamber Music Festival in Umeå, Sweden.

As part of the Zivian-Tomkins Duo, Tomkins collaborates with pianist and fortepianist Eric Zivian on both modern and original instruments, and she is also a member of the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble and the Benvenue Fortepiano Trio with English baroque violinist Monica Huggett.