EARLY MUSIC Ensemble
Upon using any contents given on this webpage, please contact us for permission and to ensure the information is up-to-date.
About Us
Ensemble Salve Eva
We are an early music ensemble based in The Hague, Netherlands featuring the soprano, Heleen, violinist, Ruiqi, and the lutenists, Asako and Talitha. The name “Eva” means life. We celebrate the rich tapestry of human history and emotion, telling the stories of women by bringing Baroque music to life.
Our primary specialisation is Early Modern Italian repertoire.
Heleen Bongenaar - soprano
Heleen Bongenaar, Soprano, started her musical education at 12 years old at Choir School Senta led by Sylvia van der Vinne. After a year she started having private lessons with Sylvia. From 17 years old Heleen started doing competitions and won several prizes. She won prizes at the Prinses Christina Concours, Prix Dominique and Euregio Vokall Wettbewerb. Heleen graduated summa cum laude from her bachelor in classical singing at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. During her bachelors she studied with Maria Acda and Noa Frenkel. She also had lessons with early music specialists Peter Kooij, Robin Blaze, Dorothee Mields, Michael Chance and Jill Feldman. At the moment she is in her master of early music singing also in The Hague with Noa Frenkel. In her young career she already worked with several great conductors like Philippe Herreweghe, Ton Koopman and Daniel Reuss. She sings regularly as a soloist in oratorio works and baroque operas. She also feels at home in contemporary music and worked together with young composers like Jimena Maldonado who wrote a piece for her voice.
Ruiqi Ren - baroque violin
Modern and baroque violinist Ruiqi Ren has appeared as a soloist in Europe,
the United States, and Asia. As a baroque violinist, she has collaborated with Nederlandse Bachvereniging, La Risonanza, Bach Collegium Japan, Arcangelo, and Poland Baroque. She was a featured performer and concertmaster in the first early music CD album produced in China. Ren’s second early music album, in collaboration with soprano Lei Xu, was released in 2020.
As a member of Shanghai’s first early music ensemble, Shanghai Camerata, Ren has performed in major halls and universities in China. In 2019, Ren was invited to give lectures and concerts on baroque music at the Shanghai Conservatory of middle school, as well as collaborating with David Stern at ShangHai Symphony Hall. Ren is Editor-In Chief of the bilingual musician magazine Along, which aims to build a cross-cultural through music and art. Link to the magazine website can be found here.
Ren holds degrees from the Juilliard School, Indiana University, Oberlin Conservatory and Royal Conservatory of The Hague. She has worked with William Christie, Paul Agnw,
Shunske Sato, John Holloway, Fabio Bonizzoni, Rachel Podger, Masaaki Suzuki, and Monica Huggett, among others. Her teachers include Cynthia Roberts, Ryo Terakado, Robert Mealy, Stanley Ritchie and Marilyn McDonald.
Asako Ueda - baroque guitar and theorbo
The Japanese lutenist Asako Ueda began playing the violin when she was five years
old. She studied the violin at Toho Gakuen High School and Toho Gakuen College of
Music in Japan. After finishing her Bachelor’s, she continued at her college to study
the Baroque violin with Ryo Terakado and composition with Masahiro Ishijima. She
started playing the lute while in college.
In 2016, she gave her first lute and theorbo solo recital. Later that year, she moved to
the Netherlands to study the lute and theorbo at the Royal Conservatory of The
Hague with Mike Fentross and Joachim Held and completed the Bachelor's,
graduating with the highest achievable marks. She has been granted the Excellence
Scholarship of the Royal Conservatory of the Hague, allowing her to continue to the
Master’s.
She took part in a CD recording with Ensemble Contraponto (Japan) conducted by
Tetsuro Hanai and she is a member of La Musica Collana (Japan), Petits Violons
(Japan), Ensemble Irene (Japan), IJ SPACE (Taiwan) and Maarten Engeltjes & PRJCT
Amsterdam (Holland). She founded “Sponte Sua” and with Pablo Sosa in 2018.
She played at several music festivals, among which the Chofu music festival (Japan),
Utrecht Early Music Festival's “Fabulous Fringe” (Holland), the MAfestival Brugge's
"Fringe" (Belgium) and Bach Academie Brugge (Belgium). She won first prize at the
Biagio Marini Competition (Germany) and the third prize at the International Van
Wassenaer Competition (Holland), both times with IJ SPACE. In 2019, she
established herself not only as an ensemble player but now also as a prominent soloist,
giving solo recitals on theorbo at the Luitdag of the Dutch Lute Society (Holland),
and on Renaissance lute at Dag van het Kasteel (Holland).
Her interests are not limited to only Renaissance and Baroque music, but extend also
to Medieval and contemporary music. She studied Gregorian chant and Renaissance
polyphony with Tetsuro Hanai in Japan and Mikae Natsuyama in Holland. She has
premiered pieces as a theorbo player and Baroque violin player in Ensemble
Muromachi in Japan.
Talitha Cumi Witmer - archlute and theorbo
The American-Korean lutenist, Talitha Witmer started her musical studies at age 4 with church choir and piano. When she was 9 she heard a lute on a CD and immediately fell in love with its sound. Her dream to study the lute was then realized at the age of 13, when she began her formal studies on the instrument in Tokyo.
Recent performances as a continuo player have included working with Claron McFadden, Etienne Siebens, Erik van Nevel, Maris Kupcs, and Walter Althammer. In 2017 she performed in the opera, Cendrillon by Jules Massenet together with Residentie Orkest, which in addition to playing the lute, Talitha also worked on editing the harp part for the lute and theorbo. She was selected in Eeemerging European Ensembles 2018 and in the International Young Artist's Presentation (IYAP) 2018 as a member of the ensemble, Le Voci delle Grazie. She performs in Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, Latvia, the Netherlands, and Portugal.
Over the years she took part in master classes by many of today’s leading lutenist, Yasunori Imamura, Nigel North, Paul O’Dette, Rolf Lislevand and Hopkinson Smith. She studied the lute and theorbo under Joachim Held and Mike Fentross at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, where she obtained her Bachelor's and Master's degree in Early Music. She played in numerous ensembles and projects led by established musicians such as Mieneke van der Velden, Daniël Brüggen, Peter-Jan Belder, Peter Kooij and Charles Toet. Talitha has performed in Festival Classique Den Haag, Modena Grandezze e Meraviglie Festival Musicale Estense, Festival de musique Baroque d'Ambronay, and Utrecht Early Music Festival, and in many more festivals.
In 2019 she established "Lute Constellation" where she teachers renaissance lutes to children.
Alongside performing, she loves to teach children, read books, play the piano and go on day trips.