WHO IS AARON?
Aaron Dolman (he/him) is a Canadian drummer, composer and bandleader born and based in Montreal who has emerged as a distinct and imaginative voice in the city's creative music scene.
Aaron leads the unique trio, Aaron Dolman's Here to Help, in which he is joined by two vocalists: Sarah Rossy and Eugénie Jobin. The group's first album, Are You Here to Help?, was released in March of 2022. The group was awarded the François-Marcaurelle Award for their album launch performance at L'OFF Festival de Jazz de Montréal. The album is a journey into the primordially evocative quality of drums and the human voice—brought into sharp focus by the group’s strikingly minimalistic instrumentation. Aaron’s compositions and lyrics blur the line between notated and improvised music, and probe the expressive power of giving and taking Space. In his own words: “This is music about Space. The space between each note, each word, each breath. Between what was, what is, and what could be. The gentle potency of silence. This is music about the spaces that hold the ones we love and that are left empty when they are lost.”
Aaron also leads the Rubber Stamp Ensemble, named for the collection of thousands of rubber ink stamps which he inherited from his great-aunt, the author and mail artist Freya Zabitsky. The group, whose lineup is not fixed, performs improvised interpretations of Aaron's graphic scores, which he composes using stamps from Freya's collection. A Rubber Stamp Ensemble full-length album, a short film titled 2268 Stamps, and a mail art zine project are set for release in the fall of 2026.
Nostalgia and Other Fantasies, Aaron's debut album, was released in November of 2019. With this introductory offering, Aaron weaves together two of his great musical loves — Folk and Jazz — to create pieces that sway between evocative melodies, dynamic improvisations and delicate soundscapes. The album features Caitlin Smith on viola, Zacharie Bachand and Marcus Savard-Lowry on guitars, and Mathieu McConnell on bass. A follow-up album is currently in the works, and is set to feature an extended chamber-folk ensemble, as well as new compositions with original lyrics.
As a side-person, Aaron is equally at home performing in Jazz, experimental and avant-garde contexts as he is in Folk and Pop settings. He has performed with many notable Jazz musicians across North America and Europe, including Petros Klampanis, Kristjan Randalu, Gilad Hekselman, Kevin Dean, Sarah Rossy, André White, Sasha Berliner, Alex LeBlanc, Jean-Michel Pilc, Yesseh Furaha-Ali and Jonathan Lindhorst, as well as members of Canada’s folk and indie music scene, such as Edwin Raphael, Cedric Noel, Aleksi Campagne, Shelby Trapid, Ryan Lloyd and Connie Kaldor.
Between September of 2021 and 2022, Aaron lived in Basel, Switzerland where he was a member of FocusYear, a unique year-long residency that assembles an international 8-piece ensemble to work and perform with a remarkable roster of visiting artists, under the musical direction of acclaimed Austrian guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel. These visiting artists include many of today's most pre-eminent Jazz musicians and composers, the likes of Aaron Parks, Lionel Loueke, Chris Cheek, Kris Davis, Larry Grenadier, Guillermo Klein, Linda May Han Oh, Jorge Rossy, Becca Stevens, and many others. The ensemble also released a collective album, Tiny Windows, under the German Neuklang label.
Aaron holds a Master’s degree in Jazz Performance from McGill University, where he studied with the award-winning drummer and composer John Hollenbeck. He also holds a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Performance from McGill and has been the recipient of a number of academic awards and accolades, most notably the Hall-Barsalo Award (2024), the Lou Williamson Jazz Award (2017), The Schulich School of Music Award for Outstanding Achievement in Performance (2017). In 2025, Aaron was awarded the Outstanding Graduate Instructor Award for his work as a course lecturer.
//
Aaron’s EPK can be found HERE.