Pieter Mellaerts is a percussionist and marimbist. He studied with Koen Wilmaers and Carlo Willems at Academie Regio Tienen and continued working with both teachers at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp. In 2014, he earned a master’s degree in percussion with great distinction, as well as a teaching qualification.
He was solo percussionist with Brussels Philharmonic from 2012 to December 2016 and became Principal Percussionist at La Monnaie / De Munt in January 2017. His chamber-music work includes Belgian Brass. He also played percussion on the 2015 album Alan Silvestri: Music for Film, performed by Brussels Philharmonic under Dirk Brossé.
Since the 2022–23 academic year, he has taught percussion at LUCA School of Arts’ Campus Lemmens. His teaching covers solo, chamber and orchestral percussion repertoire, as well as stage performance and presentation. In La Monnaie’s Orchestra Academy, he coached a percussion student during the 2025–26 season.
On January 9, 2027 at 8pm, he is scheduled to play the solo part in Creston’s Concertino for Marimba and Orchestra, op.21, with the La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alain Altinoglu in the La Monnaie New Year’s Concert at Bozar’s Henry Le Bœuf hall in Brussels.