Hille Perl

Hille Perl, a German master of the viola da gamba, has built an extensive discography that encompasses both historical and modern works while also performing on electric viol. Since 2002 she has served on the faculty of the Hochschule für Künste Bremen. Born in Bremen in 1965 into a household filled with music, she grew up with an organist, cantor, and music teacher for a father and three older siblings who likewise pursued musical careers. At the age of five she first encountered the viola da gamba during a Bremen recital by Wieland Kuijken, an experience that prompted her to take up the treble viol for the remainder of her childhood. Upon turning eighteen she began gamba lessons with Pere Ros, Ingrid Stampa, and Niklas Trüstedt, later enrolling at the Academy of Early Music in Bremen to study with Sarah Cunningham and Jaap ter Linden; she finished her training in 1990.

From that point she collaborated regularly with the Harp Consort, Lautten Compagney, and Circa 1500. Her artistic partnership with Lee Santana, her husband, reaches back to 1984 and produced several joint albums in the nineties, among them Sainte Colombe: Retrouvé & Changé and Spanish Gypsies. In 2001 the couple joined forces with Steve Player to form the trio Los Otros, which issued Tinto in 2003 and Aguirre in 2004. Also in 2002 Perl joined the teaching staff at the University of the Arts Bremen and simultaneously founded Sirius Viols, an ensemble created to investigate fresh performance ideas and practices. The group’s 2011 Christmas recording In Darkness Let Me Dwell was followed in 2013 by SiXXes, devoted to contemporary repertoire.

Perl’s work with her daughter Marthe yielded the 2014 album Elements; Santana rejoined the duo the next year for Born to Be Mild, Perl’s first recording on electric viol. Further joint projects include the 2017 release Händel with Dorothee Mields and the 2019 album Bach: 6 Sonatas for Recorder, Harpsichord and Viola da Gamba BWV 1030-1035 with Michala Petri and Mahan Esfahani. Since 2020 she has added Ballads Within a Dream, A Day with Suzanne: A Tribute to Leonard Cohen, and Corellimania to her catalog. She continues to balance an active schedule of teaching and performance while living with her family in Northern Germany.