Juan Díaz

The double bass player Juan Diaz is a versatile orchestra and chamber music player who covers various styles from early music to contemporary music on the appropriate instrumentation.

He was a selected member of the European Union Baroque Orchestra (EUBO) in the season 2016/2017 and a fellow of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Academy in 2018, with whom he has also performed since then. 

Specialising in violone and Viennese bass, he performs with early music orchestras and ensembles such as the Orchestra of the 18th Century (Orkest van de Achttiende Eeuw),the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées,the Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht, the Bremer Barockorchester, the Hamburger Barockorchester, the Göttinger Barockorchester, La Real Cámara,the Bach Orchestra of the Netherlands, the Odyssee Ensemble, the Collegium Musicum Den Haag and the Florilegium Musicum sharing stage with musicians like Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Philippe Herreweghe, Nicolas Altstaedt, Margaret Faultless, Alfredo Bernardini, Bojan Cicic, Alexander Melnikov, Maria Keohane, Kenneth Montgomery, Emilio Moreno, Ryo Terakado, Pieter Wispelway and Sunske Sato.

As a modern double bass player, Juan Diaz was principal double bass of the Spanish National Youth Orchestra (Joven Orquesta Nacional de España, JONDE) in 2009 and has performed with orchestras as with the Het Gelders Orkest, the Folkwang Kammerorchester Essen, the Oviedo Filarmonía and the Castleton Festival Orchestra, founded by Lorin Maezel, with musicians such as Fabio Luisi, Rafael Payare, Alisa Weilerstein, Nils Mönkemeyer, Friedrich Haider, Pablo González and Asier Polo.

In 2013 he was selected for the Lucerne Festival Academy, where he worked intensively on contemporary music until 2017. Here he had the opportunity to work with its founder Pierre Boulez and other artists including David Robertson, Pablo Heras-Casado, the Ensemble Interconteporain, Matthias Pintscher, Isabelle Faust and Wolfgang Rihm. He also appeared as solo bass player at the contemporary music festival ManiFeste at the IRCAM of the Centre Pompidou in Paris with Peter Eötvös and was invited as solo double bass of the Lucerne Festival Alumni Ensemble with Patricia Kopatchinskaja and the JACK Quartet in 2017. 

Born in Oviedo (North-Spain), Juan Diaz started his studies at the Conservatory of his hometown and later graduated from the Conservatorio Superior de Música del País Vasco Musikene (San Sebastian, Spain) with professor Niek de Groot, Wolfgang Güttler and Bernard Salles. This was followed by a Master's study at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen with professors Niek de Groot, Olivier Thiery and Matthew Mcdonald and in 2017 a Master's degree specialising in Early Music at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam with Professor Margaret Urquhart. 

In addition he has also received instruction and inspiration from musicians such as Robert Franenberg, James Oesi, Alexander Michno, Sigiswald Kuijken, Diego Zecharies, Nicolas Crosse and Joshua Cheatham. 

Juan Diaz is currently based in Bremen, Germany.