Koen Plaetinck

After obtaining his master’s degree at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, Koen continued his studies with Jan Pustjens and Gustavo Gimeno (orchestral percussion), Marinus Komst (timpani), and Keiko Abe at the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo (marimba).
He was a permanent member of the percussion section of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra for ten years and regularly performs as a guest musician with numerous other orchestras, including MusicAeterna, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Philharmonia Orchestra.
Koen Plaetinck specializes in historically informed performance practice on timpani and collaborates with orchestras and ensembles such as Anima Eterna Brugge, La Petite Bande, B’Rock, Insula Orchestra, Correspondances, the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, Il Gardellino, and Concerto Köln.
As a soloist, he has performed with the Brussels Chamber Orchestra, Het Kamerorkest, and Percussion Group Brussels, including performances alongside Keiko Abe. He has also appeared as a soloist with trumpeter Wim Van Hasselt and the Budapest Festival Orchestra.
Koen has given recitals at venues and events including Bozar, Amuz, Opera City Tokyo, the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, Klarafestival, Festival de Wallonie, the Bach Academy, Percussion Festival Brussels, and the Beat It! Festival at Concertgebouw Brugge.
In 2019, he founded the duo ART’uur with trumpeter Wim Van Hasselt. ART’uur’s debut recording, Imaginary Mirror, was released by Channel Classics Records in the autumn of 2020.
His first solo recording, Notenbüchlein, was released in 2011 on the Fuga Libera label.