Kai Strobel - Germany
Kai Strobel, 1st prize winner of the "68th Int. ARD Music-Competition 2019" and winner of the "Audience Award", 1st prize winner of TROMP Percussion Competition Eindhoven 2018 was recently described by the Jury as „musically intelligent“, having „experience and control“, playing in „great lines full of details“. Kai Strobel counts as one of the most versatile and promising percussionists of his generation.
Kai was awarded laureate of the international summer academy of Mozarteum Salzburg and performed in a concert of the Salzburger Festspiele. At international competitions, Kai has received numerous awards such as the 1st Prize of TROMP Percussion Competition Eindhoven, as well as the 1st prize plus the Audience Award at the International Percussive Linz Marimba Competition. He was semifinalist at the 2014 ARD International Music Competition and is scholarship recipient of the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben and the Deutsche Musikwettbewerb (German Music Competition).
As soloist he has already performed with Orchestras such as the Lübeck Philharmonics, Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen and the Asko-Schönberg Orchestra.
Kai received his first tuition from Prof. Marta Klimasara in Stuttgart; since 2012 he has studied percussion at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz with Prof. Leonhard Schmidinger and Prof. Bogdan Bacanu.
Parallel to his soloist career, he continuously focuses on exploring and expanding the possibilities of the percussion instruments through various chamber music formations.
He has been invited to perform on CD recordings along with the Wave Marimba Quartet (Label: Sony Classical), Thomas Leleu and Kim Barbier (Label: ARS Productions) and trumpet player Simon Höfele (Label: Genuin classics), which was awarded by Deutsche Schallplattenkritik in category of best chamber music.
He is frequently invited as lecturer and soloist in music festivals in France, Croatia, the Netherlands, Austria, Swiss, Italy, Russia, America and Germany.
Kai Strobel is furthermore an endorser of the Dutch instrument maker Adams Musical Instruments.