Nico Schoeters

Nico Schoeters took his first percussion lessons with Eric Buyle in the “Academy for Music and Word” in Boom, near Antwerp, after getting the hang of it through private lessons by Jozef Vervliet. Afterwards he continued his music studies at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp, where he was taught by Leo Ouderits, Carlo Willems and Koen Wilmaers. In 1998 he graduated there with great distinction as Master in percussion.

Nico gained his first orchestra experience at the Royal Wind Band Schelle, an orchestra with which he still plays today. Later on he also performed with Brassband Willebroek, Festival Brassband and the “Kempisch Jeugdfanfare Orkest.” Starting in 2001, Nico has been a percussionist with the Belgian National Orchestra and since January 2021 he has been the Principal Timpanist. In 2009, he had the honor of performing the world premiere of 'Marimbarpie Rapsodie' by Janpieter Biesemans as marimba soloist, accompanied by the Belgian National Orchestra at 'De Bijloke' in Ghent.

However, despite of all his achievements as a percussionist, Nico Schoeters did not take his first musical steps playing percussion, but rather by playing the piano. His love for the piano has also remained a common thread in his musical career. For example, he played numerous gigs as a pianist with his jazz quartet ‘Just Friends”, consisting of a number of top musicians who are his friends.

One of his most recent accomplishments is the music project 'Cocktail maison', which he set up together with Inge Smedts, 1st soloist piccolo at the Royal Symphonic Band of the Belgian Guides. On opening night in 2017, Nico and Inge performed no less than eight world premieres for vibraphone/marimba and flute/piccolo/alto flute. All pieces were especially composed for these two soloists by Piet Swerts, Jef Neve, François Glorieux, Klaas Coulembier, Etienne Houben, Jan Huylebroeck en Bart Watté. Nico himself wrote the eighth piece: Cosmopolydian is his first piece for wind band, vibraphone and flute.
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Nico Schoeters regularly performs with all kinds of bands and ensembles, e.g. the contemporary ensemble “champs d’action”. During his career as a percussionist Nico also has recorded a number of CDs and travelled abroad on various concert tours.

Apart from performing, Nico has also been writing music for a long time, but since 2015 he took the step of publishing his work in cooperation with Metropolis Music Publisher. So far multiple pieces for piano, one piece for wind band and a few chamber music pieces have been published. You can find more information on his website: Nico Schoeters