Jan grew up in Ostend, a city by the Belgian sea. He started as a pianist at the age of 8 and as an organist at 11. “I learned percussion at 12 and taught myself tuba and bass tuba at 16. It was written in the stars. I had to become a musician, and would do so above all else. I wanted to be able to play a full orchestra, but also to be in the middle of it. ”
The best thing about playing the timpani? Beethoven. “It is like a slice of peasant bread with smoked ham, washed down with a good Trappist beer. Complete, rewarding, challenging, the best. ”
Typical Jan when we go on tour by plane? “Usually the pilot in me comes to the surface then: I study the weather charts and local weather reports before take-off, look at flight route maps side by side, pick out local airport maps with runways and taxiways and look where the plane (also what type and licence plate number) is before it arrives. This is my way of combating boredom at the airport. During the flight itself, I read and rest, but I can also enjoy sudden turbulence and, if necessary, reassure worried passengers in my proximity.
At B’Rock, Jan always comes ‘home’. “The will to achieve something together – young, old, it doesn’t matter at all – is very noticeable in this group, in a positive sense of course: they are all heading in the same direction. It is also striking: the guest conductors have the same feeling.”
He likes to end with the West Flemish proverb: ‘ho ‘houn, ‘o ‘ho ‘houn! Translated as: ‘it will go, if it will go’.