Bronwen Naish, regarded as the first female double bass soloist and an advocate for the instrument, has died aged 86
Bronwen Naish, considered to be the first female solo double bassist, died on 6 March 2026, aged 86.
Naish was born shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War on 19 November 1939 and was one of five children. She grew up on a farm in Anglesey, North Wales and won a scholarship to grammar school from where she joined the National Youth Orchestra of Wales. Naish studied cello at the Royal Manchester College of Music (now the Royal Northern College of Music).
In Manchester, she met and married the violist Roger Best, who later became principal viola of the Royal Northern Sinfonia. By age 26, she had five children with Best, following which she decided to switch from cello to the double bass.
Naish was largely self-taught on the double bass, adapting her cello technique to use all four fingers on the double bass. She was inspired by the playing of the US bass soloist, Gary Karr, with whom she later went on to study at the University of Nova Scotia in Canada for two months.
Naish became second bassist with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, and her touring work with the ensemble included performances at Glyndebourne and with jazz artists John Dankworth and Cleo Laine.
Naish divorced Best and became reliant on her solo performances. She launched her solo bass career at the age of 32, giving 40 concerts a season. She used appearances in concert tours and TV chat shows as opportunites to raise the profile of the double bass as a solo instrument, particularly as a woman performing in a male-dominated field.
Naish’s solo recitals included appearances Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room and Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
She prioritised performing in schools through engaging and child-friendly storytelling programmes, using ‘Bartholomew the Bass’ as a character. Additionally, she worked as a peripatetic cello and bass teacher for Gwynedd Music service and held double bass workshops as part of the North Wales Summer SChool.
In 1981, her memoir Another String to My Bow was published, by which point she had made over 500 appearances as a soloist.
She stopped her double bass career in the 1990s due to a hip injury but continued to teach into her 70s. She worked as an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, travelling across the UK and Ireland, as well as Asia and Africa.
She returned to performing on the cello in her later years, principally the Bach solo cello suites which she performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2013.
In 2016 she married Dr Bernd Atenstaedt, a lawyer and businessman.
Photos courtesy Sian Best.
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