Nick Van den Bogaerde, originally from Sacramento, California, is a passionate music educator and multi-instrumentalist based in Nashville, Tennessee. They earned their Bachelor of Music Performance degree from the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University, where they studied trumpet under the world-renowned artist José Sibaja. During college summer breaks, Nick marched four seasons of drum corps, first with the Santa Clara Vanguard from 2020-2022, then with the Phantom Regiment in 2023. During their final season marching, Nick was the featured trumpet soloist in Phantom Regiment’s “Exogenesis,” the 2023 DCI World Championship “Fan Favorite” production. After aging out of drum corps, Nick began working for The Academy Drum and Bugle Corps as a trumpet technician during the 2024 season and is now freelancing in Music City.

Nick’s trumpet-playing journey began when they were ten years old, and by the end of high school, Nick had auditioned for and performed in eight honor bands, including the California All State Concert Band, won a state title with the Granite Bay High School marching band, and played lead trumpet in multiple jazz bands. In addition to playing trumpet, Nick played French Horn in the Causeway Honor Band, played trombone in the high school concert band, and played marching bass drum in a competitive winter percussion ensemble. During their senior year of high school, Nick was accepted into both the Vanderbilt University trumpet studio and the Santa Clara Vanguard hornline, two organizations that would transform their music career tremendously.

After graduating high school, Nick moved from their home state of California to Tennessee to study music at the Blair School of Music. During their four years of undergraduate study, Nick played trumpet in over ten different ensembles across vastly different genres and performed two solo recitals, both of which were self-programmed. In addition to studying classical trumpet with José Sibaja, they studied jazz trumpet with Nick Laufer, jazz drum set with Marc Widenhofer, and jazz piano with Bruce Dudley. Nick was the first lead trumpet player of the Vanderbilt Jazz Orchestra, a big band directed by Marc Widenhofer that made its debut in the fall of 2023. Outside of Blair, Nick marched snare drum in Vanderbilt’s Spirit of Gold Marching Band, serving as the drumline’s visual captain in 2023 and the center snare in 2024. 

While Nick was in college developing their musical artistry in performance, pedagogy, theory, and history, they discovered their most significant musical passion outside of college: the marching arts. Nick’s love for the marching arts began in high school, but this passion truly flourished when they auditioned for the Santa Clara Vanguard. After being selected to join the hornline at seventeen years old, they spent the next three years playing lead trumpet at the Santa Clara Vanguard up until the unforeseen cancellation of the 2023 season. Nick made the decision to march their last season of drum corps with the Phantom Regiment, which ended up being the most important decision in their career thus far. In their last season, Nick was chosen to be the featured trumpet soloist, played lead trumpet, and won the “New Member of the Year” award. Without skipping a beat, Nick transitioned to the teaching side of the marching arts and joined the brass educational staff at The Academy, a world class drum corps based in Tempe, Arizona. Over the course of the 2024 season with The Academy, Nick found great fulfillment in teaching and quickly realized that this would be the beginning of a lifelong commitment to fostering people’s passion for the marching arts. 

Nick currently resides in Nashville and is working full-time as a freelance musician. They enjoy teaching trumpet lessons both in the Nashville area and online to students from all around the country. Some of Nick’s other positions include teaching private lessons to band students at Stewarts Creek High School, serving as the head visual instructor of the Oakland High School marching band, volunteering as the visual captain of the Vanderbilt University drumline, and providing their expertise as a trumpet technician at The Academy Drum and Bugle Corps. Nick strives to be an influential artist while cultivating the love of music for others through education.