Born in 1990, Annebelle Dewitte, started playing the drums from the age of 7. Convinced at an early age to become a professional drummer, she asked for Christmas her first drum kit. The following year her career took flight and she started playing the drums, took lessons and played in her first high school band. Annebelle started her professional education in 2009 at the KASK Conservatory of Ghent. Two years later, she continued her education with lecturer Pieter Bast and Stéphane Galland at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. In 2016 Annebelle graduated as a Master of Arts in Music, with a major in Jazz/light music. Playing in various genres such as rock, POP, jazz, crossover classic, swing, big band and Latin music Annebelle enjoyed mastering them all and acquired many different attributes to complement her skills. She was inspired and mentored by the likes of Frank Nuyts, Wim Koninck, Koen Lieckens, Steven Cassiers, Bart Quartier, Diederik Wissels, Jeroen Van Herzeele, Bart De Nolf and Kris Defoort. Annebelle participated in different summer internships and Masterclasses with amongst others Dre Pallemaerts, Teun Verbruggen, Jan De Haas, Mark de Jong, Dennis Chambers, JoJo Mayer, Jeff 'Tain' Watts, Dom Famularo and Peter Erskine. As well as playing the traditional drum kit, Annebelle also took percussion lessons with Martin Gort, where she specialized in conga’s and timbales. For two years, she played timbales and Latin drums with the ‘Latin ensemble’ of Peter Van Marle, after which she played another two years timbales in the Salsa Big Band, ‘Banda Bruselas’, leaded by Peter Van Marle. Annebelle gets a lot of inspiration of drummers such as Ari Hoenig, Peter Erskine, Jo Jo Mayer but also by Stephane Galland and Mario Goossens. She loves listening to all sorts of jazz but also to bands such as the ‘Foo Fighters’, ‘Bruce Springsteen’ and ‘Nathaniel Rateliff’. Currently, Annebelle plays drums in groups like ‘Zsa Zsa Zsu’, ‘The Advent of March’, ‘Cantens’, ‘The Andrews Brothers’, ‘Fifties Fever’, … and as bandleader with ‘Cro§in’X’ and ‘Annebelle Dewitte Quartet’.
Dewitte annabelle
