Wibert Aerts - Final

As one of the leading violinists of his generation in Belgium, Wibert Aerts is known both as a chamber musician and as the violinist of the highly acclaimed chamber music ensemble Het Collectief. He has recorded more than a dozen CDs with the ensemble, which have received laudatory reviews in international professional journals such as Gramophone, Répertoire, Scherzo, and Diapason. In 2011, the ensemble received the Klara Award for “Musician of the Year” from Flemish classical radio.

In 1998, he began performing with the Spanish pianist Caridad Galindo, and since then they have appeared regularly as a duo.

In addition, Aerts has built up a strong reputation through his daring solo recitals of modern and contemporary music. His solo CD Violin Faces (Fuga Libera / Outhere, 2008), featuring works by Zimmermann, Hartmann, and Berio, received excellent reviews in both national and international publications, including The Strad, Le Monde de la Musique (★★★★), Classiqueinfo, Crescendo, and Klassik.com.

About this recording, The Strad wrote:

“Belgian player Wibert Aerts has crafted this disc to perfection. Violin Faces has a broad mix of works dating from 1927 to 2001, all highly coloured and well contrasted, and performed with tender delicacy by Aerts, whose sweet-singing tone ensures that even in its grittiest moments this music never grates.”

In 2005, he was named godchild of the Handelsbeurs Concert Hall in Ghent. Since then, he has performed solo recitals and concerts throughout Europe and abroad at festivals such as Ars Musica, Festival van Vlaanderen, Festival de Saintes, Klara Festival, Festival de Wallonie, Novosibirsk Cello Festival, and Festival Campos de Jordão (São Paulo). He has appeared in major concert halls including Concertgebouw Amsterdam, BOZAR Brussels, deSingel Antwerp, Concertgebouw Brugge, Gulbenkian Lisbon, Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ Amsterdam, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, De Doelen Rotterdam, Kiev Philharmonic, MC2 Grenoble, Arsenal Metz, and Liège Philharmonie, among others.

Aerts regularly performs as guest violinist with leading ensembles such as Oxalys, Ictus, Spectra, Prometheus, Champ d’Action, HERMESensemble, and the Trio Carlo Van Neste, and has collaborated with renowned musicians including Reinbert De Leeuw, James Boyd, Arie van der Beeck, Paul De Clerck, Jonas Alber, Alasdair Beatson, Frank Agsteribbe, Yura Lee, Philippe Graffin, and Roel Dieltiens. He was concertmaster of the Doelenensemble (2011–2013) and a member of the Taurus Quartet until 2014.

Aerts has also participated in numerous world premieres of works by contemporary composers such as J.-P. Deleuze, Mauricio Kagel, Kee-Yong Chong, Mattijs Van Damme, Walter Hus, Frédéric Dhaene, Daan Janssens, Luc Brewaeys, and Frederic Rzewski.