Biography
Klaas Balijon (b 04-13-1981) started to play drums at the age of eight. He started to learn music at the Amsterdam School of Music, getting lessons from Alfred Peelen, Frank van Oosterhout and Peter Guidi. At age 16 he got his first master class of John Engels. The same year he played with the Lars Dietrich Quartet for Dutch national television, and did a concert in the European Parliament as a guest soloist with the European All-Star Big Band. This band included great players like Jesse van Ruller, Toon Roos, Peter Guidi, Eric Vloeimans and Peter King.
Klaas did several concerts at the North Sea Jazz festival with different bands like the Amsterdam Conservatory Concert Band, Bloomington High School Orchestra (USA) and the Jazzmania Big Band. With the Jazzmania Big Band he toured France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Hungaria and Romania. In the year 2000 he performed at the European Youth Music Festival in Trondheim, Norway. In the National Big Band Competition 2002 in Hoofddorp (Holland) he won the price for best big band drummer. In 2004 he did a very successful tour in Japan with the Jos van Beest Trio featuring Marielle Koeman.
In 2007 Klaas graduated from the Amsterdam Conservatory. He got lessons from Cees Kranenburg, Lucas van Merwijk, Marcel Serierse, Martijn Vink en Danny Sahupala. He participated in several masterclasses of Dick Oatts, Jim McNeely, Joan Reijders, Ed Neumeister, Johan Plomp, Tony Lakatos and John Clayton. He played in many final exams and recorded several CD's. Klaas did gigs with the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw, the Dutch Jazz Orchestra, the HR-Bigband (Frankfurt), the Noord Nederlands Orkest and the Brussels Jazz Orchestra.
He is the regular drummer of the Brussels Jazz Orchestra, the New Generation Bigband, the Glenn Miller Orchestra, the Simone Honijk Quartet and The Bones (Belgium).
Played with: Benny Bailey, Chuck Findley, Ack van Rooyen, Dave Taylor, Kim Criswell, Tim Armacost, Jim McNeely, Jesse van Ruller, Ed Neumeister, Tony Lakatos, John Clayton, Marc Mommaas, Benjamin Herman, Toon Roos, Jarmo Hoogendijk, Dick Oatts, Peter Guidi, Eric Vloeimans, Anton Goudsmit, Bob Findley, Jan Oosthof, Ferdinand Povel, Peter King, Ruud Breuls, Joe Piscopo, Mike Mainieri, Cor Bakker, Randy Brecker, James Carter, Izaline Calister, Paulo Moura, Deborah Brown, Philip Catherine, Greetje Kauffeld, Lee Konitz, Toots Thielemans.