Kaatje Strauven

Instrument: viola, soloist
With Flanders Symphony Orchestra since: 2004

What is your favourite piece to play?

I obviously have several, but I think Shostakovich's Violin Sonata, his last work composed on his deathbed, is such a powerful piece. On the one hand, he struggles with his emotions concerning the regime where he was oppressed, but on the other, he reflects on his mortality and simply his humanness. 

Out of orchestral work, I like to play Sibelius' Fifth Symphony.

Why did you choose your instrument?

As a nine-year-old, I started taking violin lessons with my brother. My eldest brother was already doing violin and my sister cello. After the first violin lesson, I came home and said to my mother, ‘I don't like it, much too high and blaring!’ By chance that year, viola lessons were being organised by violist Marc Claes. After my first lesson with him, I was immediately sold by its warm and melancholic sound.

What is your most memorable concert with Flanders Symphony Orchestra?

The concert we played in Bruges, sometime in 2008, with Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2 with pianist Anna Vinnitskaya. She lifted the level of the orchestra and the whole hall went wild!

What do you do besides being a musician with Flanders Symphony Orchestra?

I write poetry, organise my own chamber music concerts and now I am going to start my own ensemble. I will work with very different instrumentations such as viola, saxophone and four male voices where I want to deal with the theme ‘life/death’ and a project with viola, piano and two dancers where I want to chart psychiatry as a theme (‘no, I'm not crazy, I am who I am’) and so many other ideas. I also teach violin and viola at the music academy. It is so fascinating to assist children and adults on their musical journey and to see them grow as a person.

I am also in training to become a Merkaba healer. Merkaba is a teaching from Atlantis and ancient Egypt. It is a light body activated by unconditional love that enables you to reach higher forms of consciousness. This allows you to purify and heal yourself from trauma.

In my spare time, I walk in nature. That's where I unwind. And I am a full-time mum of three sons whom I guide through their adolescent years and bring them into contact with the invisible, beyond the material we see.