Coen Janssen — born in the Netherlands in 1981 — has been Epica's keyboard player and pianist since 2002, and is responsible for the orchestral arrangements that define the band. His function is not that of an ordinary keyboard player. Epica uses real orchestra and choir on its recordings, and someone has to write those scores — decide the instrumentation, distribute the voices, work out how an orchestra and a metal band can occupy the same spectrum without cancelling each other. It is orchestration work, not accompaniment, and it is what separates Epica from bands that simulate the effect with synthesizers. Live, his presence solves another problem: reproducing onstage arrangements conceived for dozens of musicians. Janssen uses a keyboard mounted on a swivelling arm that lets him move around the stage — a practical solution that became part of the group's visual identity. He is, with Mark Jansen and Simone Simons, one of the three members present since the founding, and took part in the entire discography, from The Phantom Agony (2003) to Aspiral (2025).
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