Joris Roelofs is a bass clarinettist and composer based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He began to study classical clarinet at the age of six, and he added the alto saxophone at age twelve. At sixteen, Joris performed the clarinet introduction to Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Orkest van het Oosten. He played lead alto saxophone in the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw (2003–2018), and for five years he was a member of the Vienna Art Orchestra. He has also played with Brad Mehldau, Lionel Loueke, and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, among many others. He is winner of the Pim Jacobs Prize (2001) and first prize at the Deloitte Jazz Award Competition, The Netherlands (2004). In 2003 he was the first non-American to receive the IAJE Stan Getz/Clifford Brown Fellowship Award in the US.

After completing his master’s degree at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam (2007), Joris moved to New York City. His debut album, Introducing Joris Roelofs (2008), features Ari Hoenig, Matt Penman, and Aaron Goldberg. The next two albums, Chamber Tones (2010) and The Ninth Planet (2012), feature Jesse van Ruller and Clemens van der Feen. Joris has also released two albums with his trio, featuring Matt Penman and Ted Poor: Aliens Deliberating (2014) and Amateur Dentist (2015). Icarus (2018), a duo album with legendary Dutch drummer and artist Han Bennink, is Joris’ latest release. Rope Dance: Light-Footed Music for All and None (release date: May 2021) is based on Nietzsche's parable of the rope dancer in Thus Spoke Zarathustra and features Bram van Sambeek on bassoon.

As a composer, Joris has written for solo piano, bassoon, big band, symphony orchestra and big band, as well as four clarinets and rhythm section. In 2019 he received a Composition Grant from the Performing Arts Fund (FPK) of the Netherlands to write two works based on Nietzsche’s philosophy: the chamber music work Nietzsche Serenade, for tenor voice, bassoon, cello, and French horn; and the duets Truth and Lies, for bass clarinet and bassoon.

Joris currently lives in Amsterdam and chairs the Clarinet Department (Jazz) at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. He teaches a master’s course on music and philosophy, Freedom and Improvisation. Joris’s lectures Great Philosophers on Music and Nietzsche’s Muses also explore the relationship between music and philosophy.

Joris writes philosophical essays and articles, frequently on Nietzsche-related topics. His most recent piece, To Lie Beyond Good and Evil: A Musical Question of Truth, was published in the peer-reviewed journal Tijdschrift voor Filosofie. Joris is a member of the International Nietzsche Research Group in Stuttgart, Germany.
In addition to teaching and playing music, Joris is at work on a PhD dissertation on Nietzsche, improvisation, and the notion of freedom.