Lieven Venken studied at the Lemmens Instituut. He started classical violin and percussion, then switched to the jazz department, with Dré Pallemaerts as a teacher among others. Venken graduated in 1999 "cum laude".



Lieven Venken also studied in Amsterdam with Kees Cranenburg and with Billy Hart in New York, followed by private lessons from Billy Hart, Brian Blade and Jorge Rossy in New York in 1997.



After his studies, Lieven Venken rapidly becomes a very active drummer on the Belgian jazz scene. As a freelance musician he played concerts all over Europe and in the U.S. with people such as: Mark Turner, Claudio Roditi, Tim Armacost, Hein van de Geyn, Jonathan Moritz, Brian Lynch, Pete Mccann, Jesse van Ruller, Michiel Borstlap, Matt Renzie, Norma Winstone, Martin Gjakonovski, Nicolas Simion, Norbert Scholly, Rupert Stamm, Noah Howard, Darek Oles, Shane Endsley, Mike Le Donne, Gulli Gudmanson, Chantal Willie, Danny Grisett, Mike Carr, Dan Marcus, Al De Fino, Frank Vaganée and Erik Vermeulen.



Lieven Venken had the opportunity to play with Erwin Vann's Worlds Project (the sextet version) featuring vocalist Norma Winstone, trumpetist Eric Vloeimans, pianist Michel Herr and bassist Stefan Lievestro.



Lieven Venken also worked in trio with American saxophonist Jonathan Moritz. They recorded the album "Xanadu".