N.S.Schwarz

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General Management

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Nicholas Santangelo Schwartz, double bassist of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, is a distinguished artist on both the double bass and cello. He is perhaps the only one in theh world performing on both instruments at an artist level. Nicholas is a laureate of multiple international competitions, including being the youngest winner ever (at 19) of the International Society of Bassists Competition, as well as the commission prize. He was also the first bassist in 43 years (in a unanimous vote) to have won the Stulberg International String Competition and its Bach award. Since then he has won the USA International Music Competition and has appeared as the opening artist for the International Society of Bassists Convention in San Francisco, as well as the Texas Double Bass symposium to fill in on short notice for Joel Quarrington. Radio broadcasts include a solo appearances on “Radio 4” in the Netherlands, National Public Radio in America as well as a recital at the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series broadcast live on WFMT, the largest classical music station in the USA.

As a cellist, Nicholas has played with great musicians such as Dana Zemtsov, Daniel Rowland, Benedict Kloeckner, Ella van Pouke and many more and has played in a number of concerts in Europe and the USA including festivals such as the International Chambermusic Festival Ede and the Winter Sunshine Festival in Norway. Starting cello in the summer of 2018 and being largely self taught, it is a great achievement that he is already concertizing internationally.

In 2013, Nicholas became a tenured member of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, widely known as one of the greatest orchestras in the world. He formerly played with the Berlin Philharmonic as a student of the Karajan Akademie, and in the USA with the Boston Symphony and Pops orchestras. In addition to being a long time member of the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra, he was guest artist at multiple international chamber music festivals in Holland, Germany, Norway, Belarus, Italy and Brasil, with such artists as Anna Fedorova, Maximilian Hornung, Eldbjørg Hemsing, Benedict Kloekner, Janusz Wawrowski, Alexei Ogrintchouk, and Olivier Patey. With world famous pianist, Anna Fedorova he has formed the “Oyster Duo” performing across Europe, Ukraine and the US to promote the double bass as a solo instrument and to pioneer the dream that many bassists have of playing the incredible cello repertoire, yet on the cello itself. 
 

Nicholas' roots started in other genres such as jazz, and folk music. As a jazz bassist of 15 years old, he won his first major competition, receiving the Grand Prize of the Chamber Music Foundation of New England International Chamber Music Competition at Carnegie Hall with the Midday Jazz Quartet. At the same time Nicholas was a dedicated and competitive skateboarder, having been twice the 15 and under champion of Boston.

Originally from Brookline, Massachusetts (USA) Nicholas resides in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. In addition to his numerous concert performances, Nicholas enjoys teaching privately and giving master classes. His own teachers include Matthew McDonald from the Berlin Philharmonic and Edwin Barker from the Boston Symphony.

Nicholas is sponsored by Pirastro strings and plays a double bass by Gaetano Antoniazzi (1872, Milan) and a cello by Amati Mangenot (1930, Bordeaux)