Aart Strootman won the Gaudeamus Award in 2017. In 2019 he returned to the Gaudeamus Muziekweek with the commissioned work that he got to wrote for winning the Award. In the same week he received the Matthijs Vermeulenprijs 2019, during the Gaudeamus Saturday Night 2019, for the piece Shambling Emerge – after after party, a commission of Gaudeamus.
The jury of the Gaudeamus Award 2017 said about Strootman: ‘Aart Strootman is a complete original whose sonic invention is an inspiration and who approaches composition with a remarkable freshness, reinventing the sound of each instrument within an ensemble down to the finest detail. A performer, an improviser, an inventor and a unique composer.’
In 2019, Strootman’s piece W.A.L.L premiered during the Gaudeamus Muziekweek. For this piece, he built a huge marimba by hand. His good friend, filmmaker and actor Dries Alkemade followed him during the process like a fly on the wall and made the documentary Behind the W.A.L.L about it:
Foto © Anna van Kooij