Ben Haemhouts started his musical studies at the age of eight at the municipal conservatory of Willebroek as a euphoniumist. At the age of seventeen he started studying the trombone at the Lemmensinstituut in Leuven. There he earned First Prizes in chamber music, solfège and trombone and the Higher Degree summa cum laude in trombone. Even before he completed his studies he had managed to become the second trombonist with the famous Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, a position he held from September 1993 to September 1996. In 1995 he succeeded as a solo trombonist with the celebrated German Bamberger Symphoniker.