Jan de Winne studied at the University of Ghent and at the Conservatoire, completing his degree in musicology with high distinction in 1986. At the Conservatoire he won first prizes in musical theory, transverse flute and chamber music. Thereafter he specialised in early music, continuing his studies at the Brussels Conservatoire with Barthold Kuijken. He passed his diplome supérieur in 1991, after being declared laureate in 1987 in the Bruges Musica Antiqua competition. He has appeared as a soloist and with ensembles at a number of festivals and has recorded with the Chapelle Royale, the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, Il Fondamento and the Wiener Academie. His interest in early instruments has led to his making flutes on models of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.