Photo: Emma Sini te Hietbrink
The Gieskes-Strijbis Podiumprijs goes to composer Kate Moore and multidisciplinary artist Femi Dawkins this year. The award, the most important prize for artistic performance in the Netherlands, was presented to the winners in the presence of all five nominees and an assembly of guests on 19 September, in Amsterdam. The prize is awarded annually to two artists who contribute to the quality and diversity of the performing arts in the Netherlands. The winners are free to use the €60,000 in prize money each receives for the benefit of their artistic development, as they see fit.
From the jury report: “It is very clear that the artistic practice of both Kate Moore and Femi Dawkins cannot be captured in words, but they embody their practice from head to toe. Artistry is not a quest for them, but the discovery of a precise form, a context, partners in performance.” “Kate Moore is continually developing a unique oeuvre in which she experiments with timbre and instrumentation without alienating her audience. She is idiosyncratic and unique in her quest to unite nature and culture. She demonstrates courage in setting up an ensemble at a time when ensembles are being cut back on, and she makes remarkable choices as an artistic director.” And on Femi Dawkins: “Femi Dawkins is developing an exceptionally eclectic oeuvre that provides inspiration, motivation and direction to many other artists. As a maker in mid-career, with patience and determination, he built a consensus for narratives and narrative forms placed on the periphery and underground. As a performing artist, he challenges existing forms of presentation with great energy and cachet. Femi Dawkins is part of a small vanguard clearing the way for the recognition and embrace of the Urban Arts and Spoken Word genres in the performing arts in the Netherlands. He continues to surprise and challenge, within existing boundaries and outside of them, and always with great social urgency and eloquence.”
About Kate Moore
Kate Moore (1979) came to the Netherlands in 2002 to study with Louis Andriessen at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. She received her doctorate in 2012 at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Her work, which has earned international acclaim, expresses her fascination with nature in highly diverse ways. With Louise Bourgeois, she shares a deeply rooted interest in woman as a creative force. Moore’s music is always intriguing, melodious and transparent, gently persuasive and at the same time, full of vitality. She does not think in terms of styles, but focuses on depth, texture and tonal colour. To this end, she makes use of unconventional sound sources, such as metal and ceramic objects. Moore values collaborating with other artists. It was one of her reasons for setting up the Herz ensemble, of which she is the artistic director. Herz performs compositions by Moore and other, especially female, composers with whom she feels connected. In 2017, she won the prestigious Matthijs Vermeulenprijs, as the first woman ever to do so. She was composer-in-focus at November Music in 2018.
About the Gieskes-Strijbis Podiumprijs
The Gieskes-Strijbis Podiumprijs was initiated in 2017 to support free thought and imagination. The prize is awarded annually to two makers who contribute to the quality and diversity of the performing arts in the Netherlands. Creative people active in theatre, music theatre, music, composition and dance are eligible for the Gieskes-Strijbis Podiumprijs. Candidates have clear ideas about reaching new audiences, treating new themes or developing new repertoire. The two winners of the prize each receive €60,000. By this means, the fund aims to enable winners to work fully on the realisation of their own vision for two years. The prize is not linked directly to a specific performance or project.
This year's Advisory Committee was chaired by Annemieke Keurentjes, programme manager theatre and dance, Holland Festival and included music-theatre maker Rajae El Mouhandiz, Jan Joris Lamers (Maatschappij Discordia), Hildegard Draaijer (DOX) and Martijn Buser (Gaudeamus).
For more information see: gieskesstrijbisfonds.nl/podiumprijs.
