PIETER SINT NICOLAAS

Pieter Sint Nicolaas is a trumpet player based in Belgium. He holds master’s degrees in Classical Trumpet Performance and Music Education from the Royal Conservatory of Ghent, where he is currently completing his MA in Music Theory.

Pieter has specialized in klezmer music since he began studying with Zheka Lizin and Ilya Gindin as a teenager and has been active in the European klezmer scene for over ten years. He frequently performs with various ensembles in Germany, France, Belgium and throughout Europe, including the Brussels-based klezmer band Zinnekelekh and his Ghent-based klezmer trio, Klezmotivn.

Pieter has shared stages with klezmorim including Alan Bern, Christian David, Michael Alpert, Sasha Lurje, and Craig Judelman and with Moldovan lautari musicians Adam Stinga and Marin Bunea. He has taught klezmer music and Yiddish dance at festivals including Shtetl St Gilles, KlezNorth, LIKE, and KlezMargate, and he has been on the faculty of the Erfurt Klezmer Orchestra since 2022.

Pieter is at home in a wide range of genres and styles, with past projects including opera productions of Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera and Stravinsky’s Rossignol; the premiere of Alan Bern’s oratorio Glikl; numerous symphonic performances of works by Mahler, Stravinsky, Brahms, Mendelsohn, Haydn; and homages to Elvis Costello and Amy Winehouse with the chamber orchestra Room 13. He also plays in the duo La Finestra alongside organist Aryna Tsytlianok.

A specialist in Yiddish dance, Pieter studied for many years with Zev Feldman, Michael Alpert, Sayumi Yoshida, and Avia Moore. He can be found teaching and leading dance workshops and balls everywhere from the Hauts-Alps to the north of England.