Wouter Kühne(1996) was born into a musical environment, with both parents being professional musicians. At 3 years of age he started playing the drums and was exposed to jazz for the first time when his dad was playing one of his favourite John Coltrane records “Coltrane’s Sound” in the car. When he was 7 he started having drum lessons and at 13 years of age he was admitted to the Junior Jazz College, a prestigious young talent program at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. 3 years later he made his debute at the North Sea Jazz Festival, when he was 16. In 2014, he started his Bachelor studies at the same conservatory, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2018. There he was taught by Marcel Serierse, Martijn Vink, Lucas van Merwijk and Haye Jellema. He also had lessons/masterclasses from Peter Erskine, Willie Jones III, John Riley, Greg Hutchinson, Dennis Mackrel, Billy Hart, among others. Meanwhile, he already found himself playing and working with many jazz artists like Dick Oatts, Terrel Stafford, Aaron Parks, Joe Cohn, Bob Mintzer, Jason Marsalis, Dennis Mackrel, Benjamin Herman, Jasper Blom, Ben van Gelder, Joris Roelofs, Reinier Baas, Maarten Hogenhuis, Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw, among others.

In 2017 he won the Sena Performers “Gouden Slifje”, a prize for most talented drummer of the moment. In 2019 he started his master studies at the Manhattan School of Music in New York, where he had lessons with Kendrick Scott, John Riley, Marc Carey and Phil Markowitz. In 2015 and 2017 he traveled to Senegal to study with traditional Sabar player Maguette Gueye and has visited Mexico and Cuba to learn from the Cuban Folkloric percussionist “Piri” Manley Lopez.