Otto Vowinkel

guitar builder in Amsterdam

esther steenbergen

Taiwan Guitar Seminar

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esther steenbergen solo

This is Esther during her concert in Taiwan.  She was invited by the Taiwan Guitar Seminar to play a solo concert and accepted the kind invitation of Michael Luo and Alfredo Huang.  She is preparing a sequel to her Bach cd so she decided to play Bach a.o.

Since playing solo is not her favorite thing to do,  she asked the organization if she could add some chamber music to the program and that’s how the cooperation with mezzo-soprano Cheng, Hai-Yun and violinist Tsai Tsung-Yen started (see video below). 

Workshop

I too was invited,  to give a lecture and do some workshops. I talked about my way of working and I taught guitarists how to take care of their instruments and how to do some small repairments themselves.

Malaysian guitarist Hong Tee checking the frets of her guitar.
Malaysian guitarist Hong Tee checking the frets of her guitar.
Taiwan Guitar Seminar 2018



Esther Steenbergen

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sakura cd esther steenbergen - small

Watch the video to see the hand of Hennie van der Vegt painting one of his famous blossoms. Esther used the painting for the cover of her latest CD which actually is an EP. It contains two pieces, Sakura, Theme and variations by Yuquijiro Yocoh and Bellefleur by Pieter van der Staak. I think she plays both of them beautifully. You can order the CD at her website. Of course it’s available for download as well.

fifth bass acclaim

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Last week Benjamin Verdery sent me an e-mail

Last night I played a concert and while the Barri always sounds great for some reason, the humidity, the hall what ever, it sounded INCREDIBLE!!!! I almost started to play like Segovia used to and hold certain notes just to hear them longer, who cares about the phrase!!!!!!! I got so many great comments about the guitar! Onward we go! Thanks again for such a great instrument!

And Paul Fowles wrote a review of Suites for violoncello by Esther Steenbergen in the March issue of Classical Guitar Magazine

All acoustic basses sound alike which, in my experience, they usually do. Or at least they did prior to the arrival of the fifth-bass guitar designed and built by Amsterdam luthier Otto Vowinkel, husband of the performer. Tuned, as the name indicates, a fifth below a standard guitar. Steenbergen’s instrument has an unexpectedly bright and slightly metallic tone. But most of all, it has the one quality that somehow seems to have eluded the majority of acoustic basses both past and present. That quality is sustain.

 

otto vowinkel fifth bass guitar

Esther

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This is Esther. I think she is a great guitarist but I am not the most objective person on this matter cause I married her. Today exactly 20 years ago. That’s what I call a good cause to put her on my site even though she is a little uncomfortable with it.

But she agrees she can’t be left out of my list of guitarists playing my instruments. So here she is. Beautifully playing Bach on a fifth bass guitar I made in 1994.