Lieven Venken studied at the Lemmens Instituut, first classical violin and percussion, then switched to the jazz department, a.o. with Dré PALLEMAERTS. He graduted in '99 "cum laude". He also studied in Amsterdam with Kees Cranenburg and with Billy Hart (New York).

After his studies, he 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, etc ...

He had the opportunity to play with Erwin VANN's WORLDS Project (sextet version) with a.o. Norma WINSTONE (voc.), Eric Vloeimans, Michel Herr and Stefan Lievestro.
He also worked in trio with US saxophonist Jonathan Moritz, with Lindsey Horner on bass. They recorded the album "Xanadu"