Ralph Rousseau Meulenbroeks showed his prodigious talent at an early age, playing the piano and (bass) guitar at the age of eight. He later combined his conservatory double bass studies (with Henk Guldemond) with a masters and Ph.D. in physics. Both his conservatory soloist diploma and his masters degree in physics were awarded “cum laudeâ€. He played double bass in the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, working with major conductors such as Riccharo Chailly, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Moreover, he gave many recitals and solo concerts with orchestra in the Netherlands and abroad, including numerous radio and television performances. And he still found time to perform with several pop-, jazz-, and rockbands.
From 1995 onwards Ralph Rousseau Meulenbroeks has specialized in performing early music, studying viola da gamba with Jaap ter Linden and following master classes with Anneke Pols, Mieneke van der Velden, Freek Borstlap, Rainer Zipperling, and Philippe Pierlot. He is now an esteemed soloist, either entirely solo, in several chamber music ensembles, or in orchestral works such as the Passions and cantatas of J.S. Bach.
With the viola da gamba he has played for radio and television and he can be heard on several CDs, including the St Matthew Passion by Johann Theile. CD’s with music for viola da gamba solo were highly acclaimed in the Dutch press, which dubbed Meulenbroeks “…one of the best gamba players of this moment…†Meulenbroeks played in the Fringe series of the Early Music Festival in Utrecht (2000 through 2002), in the Dutch Early Music network (2003/2004), at the "International Chamber Music Festival" in Utrecht in 2003 and 2004, as well as in chamber music festivals in Poland, Germany, Stratford-on-Avon (UK), Amsterdam, Paris, and Brussels. He has recently worked with artists like Max van Egmond, Roger Norrington, Claron McFadden, and Janine Jansen. Outside of the Netherlands his solo recitals have taken him to Belgium, France, Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, China, Thailand, Poland, and the USA. In 2006 he returned to the Royal Concergebouw Orchestra as a gamba soloist.
