Matthias De Waele
© Roger Vantilt

Matthias De Waele

  • Instruments : Drums
  • Date of birth : 03/03/1988 - Oudenaarde
Matthias De Waele (°1988, Oudenaarde, Belgium) was an early music adept. At the age of seven, his grandfather, an accordionist and music enthousiast, encouraged him to enroll at the Academy of Music and Word in Oudenaarde. There he learned solfège and to play the clarinet. Then at the age of 13, he discovered a profound love of the drums.

At the age of 18, he enrolled at the University of Ghent and obtained a Master of Science in Criminology. Though criminology was something that he was interested in, it wasn’t his raison d’être. It was then that he decided to dedicate one hundred percent of his time and energy to music. Matthias has had the pleasure of studying with Dré Pallemaerts and Marek Patrman at the Lemmensinstitute (Leuven), Hans Van Oosterhout at CODARTS (Rotterdam), and with Lionel Beuvens at the Royal Conservatory (Brussels).

In 2015, Matthias was awarded with the prestigious BAEF fellowship (as a van Itallie fellow), making it possible for him to go and study at The New School For Jazz And Contemporary Music in New York, where he was awarded with the Provost Scholarship. During his period of study at New School he had the opportunity to study with Reggie Workman, Billy Harper, Dan Weiss, Joanne Brackeen, David Gibson, and John Hollenbeck.

Matthias believes that a musicians job is to never stop evolving and improving their craft. He currently takes lessons with Dom Famularo and ever so often with Stéphane Galland. 

He is a member of bands such as: Gwen Cresens Quartet, Anemic Cinema, Grand Picture Palace, Roeland Celis’s Celestial Planes, Naos, Don Marsh V, Ode., Rebirth::Collective, Rapidman, Serendip Quartet, et al.