Thomas Waelbroeck
accompanist, pianoforte
Born in 1991 into a family with a long musical tradition, I began my professional musical journey with modern piano at the Conservatoire Royal de Liège, where I studied with pianist Étienne Rappe. I graduated with great distinction in 2015. At the time, I was taking part in a number of piano competitions, and I have several prizes to my name, including a prize for the best interpretation of a Belgian work at the EPTA Belgium international competition, second prize at the Andrée Charlier competition and two first prizes (in piano and chamber music) at the former Dexia Classics competition. More recently, I was a finalist in the Supernova chamber music competition with flutist Géraldine Clément.
I perfected my skills with internationally renowned artists such as Pierre-Laurent Aimard at the 'Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln', during an Erasmus in 2014-15; or Nikolaï Lugansky, whom I was lucky enough to meet in a master class. I also spent a month in Moscow, at the Gnessin School of Music, perfecting my skills with Natalia Zdobnova in a very different environment from what I knew at the Liège Conservatoire. It was only after my initial studies in modern piano that I gradually began to broaden my horizons, turning first to piano accompaniment, which I studied with Philippe Riga at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles (graduating in 2019 - I haven't stopped working with singers since!) and finally to early music, which perhaps more than anything else opened up new and surprising perspectives for me. I took harpsichord and basso continuo lessons with Marie-Anne Dachy and trained as a pianofortist in the early music department of the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles, where I obtained my pianoforte diploma with great distinction in 2021 under the tutelage of Claire Chevallier. More recently, I have become fascinated by recent research into partimento and solfeggio, and have taken lessons in these subjects with Peter van Tour, Ewald Demeyere and Nicholas Baragwanath, among others. I feel that I still have a lot to learn about early music, and I'm delighted that the adventure is far from over!
I am currently an accompanist in the early music department of the Royal Conservatory of Brussels (mainly on the fortepiano), a member of the Duo Eidos with Géraldine Clément (transverse flute and traverso) and I work part-time as a piano technician and tuner for Pianos Maene. I'm also the (soon-to-be) father of two young children (I hear that can take up a bit of time and energy) and I'm preparing the release of my first two CD recordings (with the Duo Eidos and with singer Caroline Jestaedt), hoping to be able to share them here soon.