Koen Plaetinck

Born in Belgium, Koen started to play percussion at the local Music Academy of Sint-Niklaas at the age of 6 with Herman Truyens. In 2003 he obtained his Master Degree in Music with high distinction at the Royal Conservatoire of Brussels under Gert François and Bart Quartier. Thereafter he followed the Elective Student Course for Marimba at Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo under prof. Keiko Abe. In Amsterdam he took lessons for orchestral percussion with Jan Pustjens and Gustavo Gimeno. Koen followed masterclasses by Marinus Komst, Katarzyna Mycka, Bob Van Sice, Jean Geoffroy. He gave masterclasses at the conservatoires of Brussels, Amsterdam and Quebec.

Photo by Dirk Vervaet

He was a member of all the belgian Youth Orchestras and the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra and is coaching the Dutch Youth Orchestra (NJO).

As a marimba player Koen performed solo at: Percussion Festival Brussels, Festival van Vlaanderen, Festival de Wallonie, Musica Antiqua Festival, Klara, Bozar,etc. In January 2011 his debut solo album with the music of JS Bach, recorded for the label Fuga Libera, will be released during the Bach Academy in Bruge.

He specialised in historical performance practise performing with La Petite Bande, Anima Eterna Brugge, Balthasar-Neumann Ensemble, etc; under conductors Phillipe Herreweghe, Sigiswald Kuijken, Jos van Immerseel and Paul Dombrecht among others. Koen played as an extra musician with many different ensembles and orchestras including: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra London and Mahler Chamber Orchestra; under conductors Valerie Gergiev, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Claudio Abbado among others.

Currently Koen is timpanist at Anima Eterna Brugge and percussionist at Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.

Koen is proud to be endorsed by Marimba One.