Toine Cnockaert

With a childhood punctuated by his father's jazz records and his mother's classical music, it was through rock music that Toine Cnockaert began his first experiences at local festivals.

Passionate about percussion, particularly the drums, he later decided to train at the Jazz Studio in Antwerp and the Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles, where he met various personalities such as Thomas Grimmonprez, Arnould Massart, Bruno Castellucci, Thierry Gutmann, Santo Scinta, Antoine Cirri, Philippe Mobers, Stéphane Galland, Jeff Ballard, Peter Erskine, and others…

He obtained his specialised master's degree in jazz drumming and his teaching qualification in 2014, both with great distinction.

His varied musical tastes then led him to perform in a wide range of projects. He toured with various musical theatre productions: Cabaret, The Sound of Music, Evita, Sunset Boulevard,

My Fair Lady, Blood Brothers, West Side Story... – for more than 300 concerts in Europe. At the same time, he made a name for himself on the jazz scene and won first prize at the B-Jazz International Contest 2018 with the Martin Salemi Trio.

Continuing with this idea of exploring genres, he records albums and plays in various jazz, classical (Duo 202), hip hop (Arty Leiso, Lo Bailly), folk (Ana, June Road), electro (Elefan), pop (Lou Boland, Stereo Grand, Noa Moon), world (Marylène Corro), rock (Impartials), and more.

Toine Cnockaert is regularly invited to perform on Belgian stages as well as on tours in Brazil, England, Scotland, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Azerbaijan, etc.

In addition to his artistic career, he is particularly committed to teaching rhythm and drumming, subjects he teaches with passion at the Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles as an assistant, as well as at various academies in Brussels.

He has played/collaborated with various personalities: Julie Delbart, Thibault Dille, Marie-Sophie Talbot, Jean-Pierre Froidebise, Jo Mahieu, Pascal Charpentier, Stéphane Mercier, Boris Schmidt, Philippe Laloy, Nicolas Fiszman, David Linx, Michel Paré, Toine Thys, Laurent Blondiaux, Martin Salemi, Antoine Pierre,
Cédric Raymond, Jacques Pili, Ana Rocha, Fil Caporali, Joël Rabesolo, Federico Pecoraro, Arthur Bochner, Bastien Jeuniaux, Igor Gehenot, Pierre Gillet, Margaux Vrancken, Quinten De Craecker, Mathieu Najean, Pierre Quiriny, Charles Michiels, Maia Frankowski, Harry Pane, Jacob Miller, Arnaud Guichard, Thomas Maillet, Lou Boland, Julien Delbrouck, Mathieu Robert, Sylvain Debaisieux, Kenny Jeanney, Antoine Guillaume, Taïla Onraedt, Delphine Gardin, Noa Moon, Quentin Halloy, Gérard Caucheteux...