Duleen van Gunsteren, viola

©Juri-Hiensch

Duleen van Gunsteren was born in 1995 in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. He began his studies on the violin at the School for Young Talent in The Hague with Koosje van Haeringen. He continued studying at the Conservatory of Rotterdam with Ron Ephrat and at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with Marjolein Dispa and Nobuko Imai.

Duleen won the third prize in the International Oskar Nedbal Competition in 2023 in Prague as well as in the Triomphe de l’Arc Competition 2024 in Brussels. Besides he won special prizes in the Chamber Music Competition Gelre with Duo Van Gunsteren Keinänen in 2023 (the Grachtenfestival Prize) and the Amsterdam National Viola Competition in 2021 (the Leo Smit Prize). He has followed masterclasses with, among others, Isabelle van Keulen, Garth Knox, Pierre Henri Xuereb, Atte Kilpeläinen, Lilli Maijala, Anita Mitterer, and Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden.

In 2020 Duleen founded the Noordwijk Chamber Music Festival – of which he is the artistic leader – with Nathalie Flintrop and Kerttu Keinänen. With the festival he wants to connect established stars, promising young artists, historically informed performance practice and contemporary music. In its short lifespan the festival has already commissioned and premiered a work – Winter Tale – from the French composer Aristide Moari, and programmed a concert around Garth Knox as a composer and performer. Also, cellist Pieter Wispelwey has been a regular guest, collaborating in various ensembles.

Also outside of his festival, Duleen is an active chamber musician. He premiered Caliope Tsoupaki’s quartet with organ Ver Aeterna in 2023 in celebration of the reveal of Fiona Tan’s het Grote Raam in Alkmaar. Furthermore, he was invited for the recording of the ‘’Bach Reconstructed’’ CD of the Combattimento Consort Amsterdam.

Duleen’s other collaborations include various orchestras and ensembles, such as the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, The Hague Philharmonic and ASKO|Schönberg.

As a teacher of violin and viola, Duleen has been mentored by renowned violin pedagogue Wiesje Miedema. Apart from his private teaching practice, in the season 2022-2023 he was a substitute teacher at the BplusC music school of Leiden and starting 2024 he is a teacher at the Waterland Music School in Purmerend.

Duleen also likes folk music, improvisation and singing.

Since September 2024, Duleen is Artist in residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, in the class of Miguel da Silva.