Joost Lijbaart is a versatile drummer who uses a lot of different influences in his playing. Born in Amsterdam, he started drumming when he was seven years old. After several years of classical percussion lessons he went to the conservatory in Hilversum where he followed lessons from Cees Kranenburg, Marcel Serierse and Gerhard Jeltes. He graduated in 1991. During his study he went to Senegal (West-Africa) to take lessons in African percussion with the legendary DuDu and Ali un D’Aya Rose.
Besides jazz, pop and improvised music he worked with modern classical music and dance. In 1990 he performed with students from the National Ballet Academy, played modern classical percussion music from Xenakis, Cage, Reich and worked in different projects with Theo Loevendie and Louis Andriessen.
He formed with Yuri Honing the Yuri Honing Trio in 1989. With this group he did concerts and tours in more than 60 countries all over the world. During a tour in the Middle East in 1998 the trio was introduced to the music of the Arab world. The result was a bigger group called Orient Express with a Libanese singer and two musicians from Iraq. This group did several tours in the Middle East and the Netherlands. In 1993 he won the 15th Europe Jazz Contest with the Nicolas Thys trio. For this performance he received the “best drummer award”. In 1995 he joined the Michiel Borstlap sextet with Yuri Honing, Eric Vloeimans and Benjamin Herman. With this group they released the double CD the sextet live in 1996 and did several tours in the Netherlands. A tour in China in 1998 was filmed by Dutch documentary maker Jop Pannekoek.
From 1995 he works also with Agog a trio with guitar player Frank Wingold and bassguitar player Mark Haanstra. 
With this group Lijbaart won in 2002 the Dutch jazz competition and was awarded as best soloist from the contest by American drummer Elvin Jones. From 2002 Joost started his own quartet “group of friends” with Yuri Honing, Benjamin Herman and Mats Eilertsen. For this group he is also very active as a composer. He played on the North sea jazz festival with this band in 2003. A DVD of this concert was released in 2005.
Another new group is the duo with piano player Wolfert Brederode. A CD of this group will come out in Autumn 2006. With the duo they did a project with dancer and choreographer Lonneke van Leth. Also they played music on the spoken book Shadowchild from Dutch writer Frans Thomese.
This year Joost’s main groups are the Yuri Honing Acoustic Quartet and Wired Paradise, an exciting electro/rock group with Yuri Honing.

Bram's relentless search for unknown territory and new destinations began in 2007 with his first album Tonelist, followed by 12 other albums (5 releases on Challenge Records). At 18 he was selected for the prestigious Young VIP tour. At the age of 26, he was the youngest composer ever to receive the annual North Sea Jazz Composition Commission. Not long after, he received carte blanche from the BIMhuis, for which he wrote the successful Cantata for tenor voice, guitar and live electronics.

Bram's playing is influenced by (natural) landscapes, visual arts, ambient and global music, always exploring the boundary between improvisation and composition. Trained as a jazz guitarist, he often seeks metamorphosis with electronics and classical music. With each new project he tries to challenge himself again. Bram is part of the trio Under the surface (with singer Sanne Rambags and drummer Joost Lijbaart) and is currently working on three major projects: A collaboration with the enigmatic Berlin neo-classical pianist Lambert. The further development of Orbit, an immersive surround sound experience with 8 Ambisonics speakers and special guests (including Nils Petter Molvaer and Remy van Kesteren at So What's Next? festival). And Suite X: a 9-part work inspired by baroque music in collaboration with the Belgian out-of-the-box thinking baroque ensemble B.O.X.

Apart from Holland's neighboring countries, Bram has performed in Mali, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Mexico, Colombia, Panama, Bolivia, Peru, Tadzjikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Egypt, India, China, South-Korea, North America, Canada, Norway, Poland, Germany, Russia, Israel, Spain, Turkey, Macedonia, Greece, Serbia, Turkey, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Bulgaria.

He has collaborated with artists like: Onno Govaert, Eric Vloeimans, Jim Black, Sidsel Endresen, Terje Isungset, Arve Henriksen, Wolfert Brederode, Karl Seglem, Thomas Strønen, Grzech Piotrowski, Sainkho Namtchylak, Sinikka Langeland, Per Oddvar Johansen, Ruth Wilhelime Meyer, Mari Kvien Brunvoll, Koenraad Ecker, Gulli Gudmundsson, Skuli Sverisson, Theodossi Spassov, Marcin Wasilewski, Bulgarian choir Angelite, Harmen Fraanje, Jeroen van Vliet, Eric van der Westen, Sanne van Hek, Haytham Safia, Wouter Jaspers, Laïs, Noel Redding (bassist from Jim Hendrix), Nelson Veras, Hein van de Geyn, Matthieu Chazarenc, Staplerfahrer, Spinvis, the Netherlands Chamber Choir, and much more.

“His composition with the barrel organ was not only fascinating, but also sounded wonderful. It attracted a lot of audience.”— Michelle Kuypers, North Sea Jazz Festival “The result is breathtakingly beautiful. Very unique how classical vocals and impro-jazz come together here. **** 4 stars, 23-09-2015. About Henosis.” — Gijsbert Kamer, Volkskrant

“The guitarist claims a unique place in the music world for himself with this project” — Jan Jasper Tamboer, Parool

Under the Surface is a new Dutch band formed by Dutch drummer Joost Lijbaart (known for his work with Yuri Honing), guitarist Bram Stadhouders (known from his work with the Netherlands chamber choir, Jim Black, Sidsel Endersen) and vocalist Sanne Rambags (winner conservatory talent award 2017). The trio met in 2015 as an initiative of the Dutch foundation Beaux Jazz. This foundation offers young talents artistic support. For this first edition of ‘Generation Next’, the young singer Sanne Rambags come up with an adventurous group together with guitarist Bram Stadhouders and drummer Joost Lijbaart. Their debut album was released in March 2017 on the Dutch label Challenge Records and got great reviews. The universal language in their music brought the group to major festivals in Mali, Mexico, China, Norway, India and the Netherlands.