Born in Amsterdam, on April 13th 1981, Klaas Balijon started to play drums at the age of 8. He studied at the Music School Amsterdam with Frank van Oosterhout and Peter Guidi, through whom he started to play jazz at the drumset. At the age of 16 he got his first masterclass from John Engels. In that same year he performed for national television NCRV (together with the Lars Dietrich 4-tet) and IN the European Parliament (with The European All-Star Bigband, including: Jesse van Ruller, Toon Roos, Peter Guidi, Eric Vloeimans, Peter King).



He played concerts at the North Sea Jazz Festival with the Bloomington High School Orchestra, Jazzmania Bigband and the Amsterdam Conservatory Concert Band. With the Jazzmania Bigband he also did tours in France, Spain, Germany, Italy and Hungaria. In the year 2000 he performed at the European Youth Music Festival Trondheim, Norway.



Klaas won the price for "Best Bigband Drummer" during the National Bigband Competition 2002 in Hoofddorp.



Nowadays Klaas is studying at the Amsterdam Conservatory. Among his teachers are Cees Kranenburg, Lucas van Merwijk, Martijn Vink, Marcel Serierse and Danny Sahupala.



He participated in numerous workshops, led by some of the greatest teachers around today, including Dick Oatts, Jim McNeely, Joan Reijnders, Ed Neumeister, Johan Plomp.



This year Klaas also performed with Dutch Jazz Orchestra and the Jazzorchestra of the Concertgebouw.