Vanessa Vromans was born in Curacao to a Dutch father and an Australian mother. Her family moved to the Netherlands for two years and then back to Australia when Vanessa was four. It was then that her mother first took her to an instrument shop. "I remember looking up and seeing all the beautiful violins hanging on the walls, " she says of this childhood experience. "I knew right then and there that I had to learn to play the violin." In fact, she studied throughout her school years in Australia and returned to the Netherlands to study at the Conservatorium in Rotterdam.
In Rotterdam she studied Tango in the World Music department. There, she had the chance to discover many styles of music including Tango, Flamenco, and Salsa; returning, after a couple of years, to study Classical music for the completion of a Bachelors and Masters degree in solo performance.Vanessa was already inspired by music from Eastern Europe at a very early age. During her Classical studies she always felt drawn towards the repertoire which had been influenced by Eastern European folk melodies. For example, in the works of Enescu, Bartok, Brahms, Janacek.
After her studies Vanessa wanted to learn and absorb the language of this beautiful music and decided to follow intensive Klezmer workshops with: Michael Alpert and Alan Bern (Brave Old World), Steven Greenman (Khevrisa), Cookie Segelstein (Budowitz/Veretski Pass), Deborah Strauss and Alicia Svigals (Klezmatics).Vanessa plays with: Rotterdam Klezmer Band (NL), Duo"Nessa & Mischa" (NL),The Intercontinental Klezmer Band (DE) and as a guest with Shtetl Band Amsterdam (NL), Di Fidl Kapelye (NL)," NU" (DE) and the Global Shtetl Band (DE).
Vanessa is based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, where she also teaches.
