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Theo Mertens (Boechout, 10 Februari 1932 - Edegem, 31 maart 2003) was a Flemish trumpet player and music educator.

Starting of career
Mertens got introduced to the trumpet through soldiers who visited his parents pub in Boechout. He studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp. At seventeen, he played in the Royal Flemish Philharmonic in Antwerp.

In 1952, he became soloist in the Band of the Guides en later, he taught chamber music and trumpet at the conservatoria of Antwerp and Rotterdam. During his life, he only had one permanent (half-time) job: 20 years with the Band if the Guides.

When he was at the Brussels Conservatoire, he started playing Ball (dance party)n which was highly unusual for classically trained musicians at that time. Theo played inter alia with a brass ensemble and had his own quintet.

In 1955, Mertens won the Geneva International Music Competition, together with Maurice André, making him one of the best trumpet players in the world at that time.

In 1963, The Mertens got involved in the Modern Jazz Brass-band, which was created because of the former Flemish BRT. He played Swing music and Dixieland with among others, Bert Paige, Tony Foster, Charlie Pauwels and Norman Young. He also collaborated with his brother Albert Mertens, a trombonist.

Versatility
In the 70's and 80's, he was the most famous trompet player in the Benelux. Theo Mertens had a great musicianship and orchestras often appealed to him if there was a difficult trumpet part to be executed, for example the trumpetsolo of the Ebony Concerto. Mertens was, according to jazz connoisseur Juul Anthonissen, a great musician and trumpet player because of his intonation and a mastery of a variety of musicial forms. He played in bigbands, symphonic orchestras and small ensembles.

Later Years
During the Night of the Proms, he was hosted as soloist twice. In 2001, he toured with a young 31-manned mambo-ansemble El Tattoo del Tigre, in which also his son Carlo Mertens played. In addition to that project, he said: "You have to have feeling. By playing the notes, you accomplish nothing. And music doesn't have to be perfect, otherwise it ressembles a computer."

Theo Mertens died in 2003 at 72 years old age of a lingering illness. On March 2008, five years after he died, Carlo organised, in collaboration with Edegem, a musical honor in the local Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-van-Lourdesbasiliek.