Matthias De Waele (°1988, Oudenaarde, Belgium) was an early music adept. At the age of seven, his musical grandfather encouraged him to enroll at the Academy of Music and Word in Oudenaarde. He played the clarinet and learnt solfege. 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. He then decided to dedicate one hundred percent of his time to music. Matthias has studied 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) which made it possible for him to go and study at The New School For Jazz And Contemporary Music, where he was awarded with the Provost Scholarship, in New York. There, he had the opportunity to study with Reggie Workman, Billy Harper, Dan Weiss, Joanne Brackeen, David Gibson, and John Hollenbeck.
Currently, Matthias is one of the most sought after drummers in Belgium, and has worked with, among others, Bert Joris, Tutu Puoane, Jeremy Pelt, Jos Machtel, Itai Kriss, Or Baraket, Bram De Looze, Brussels Philharmonic (Cole Porter program with Wilfried Van den Brande), Criss Cross Europe Band 2013, Bravo Big Band, Dee Daniels, Andrea Pozza, Pierrick Pédron, Jeremy Manasia, Rembrandt Frerichs, Greg Houben, Cedric Raymond, Pascal Mohy, Steven Delannoye, Jean-Paul Estievenart, Rob Banken, Boris Schmidt, Maayan Smith, Roeland Celis, et al.