Dutch violist Esther Apituley is a native of Amsterdam. Apituley began to study the violin at 12, but soon changed to the viola, drawn to its lower, throatier sound. She studied at the Sweelinck Conservatory in her hometown, where she teaches and completed her course of study at the Hochschüle für Musik in Berlin. Since Apituley commenced her professional career in 1990, and she has long struggled against the notion of the viola as a middle-range instrument that belongs to filling out the harmony between violins and cellos. In the mid-'90s, Apituley founded a group of four violists initially under the name "Alt-viool-tild-Kwartett" (Always Viola Time Quartet), but later changed it to the more internationally comprehensible Amsterdam Viola Quartet. The group has become an established force in Dutch music, and with it Apituley has expanded her accomplishments through composing her Kaduuk for four electric violas and tap dancer for the quartet and tap dancer Peter Kuit. Apituley has appeared on Dutch television as host of the program Reiziger im Muziek, and her Mikrokosmos Project, a multi-media event based around the music of Béla Bartók has been broadcast over Dutch public television. In the live context, Apituley has developed several successful touring programs, including her "Dance of the Viola," and has taken them throughout Europe and Asia. In 2005, Apituley recorded her solo debut CD, Violent Viola, which epitomizes her quest for new avenues of expression for the "old violin."