It can take a while for an artist to find his true calling. For Pieter De Graaf, he’s been searching since he sat next to his father, aged five, and watched him play the classics and the classical; the Beatles, the Stones, Chopin, Bach. Naturally inquisitive, he learned to play outside the structures of formal lessons, choosing whatever piqued his interest. By ten he was keeping scrapbooks of composi- tions. Dedicating hours to practice, and stud- ying at the Conservatory of Rotterdam “I was, and still am, a perfectionist,” he says.

Several years spent touring with various bands he learned about not over-playing, and not getting ahead of the music. “What does the music need from me?” he asks. From that moment on he started evolving again, inte- grating more complex elements and quiet details.

The first result of this search for musical meaning and depth is “Fermata”, DE GRAAFs debut project and the birth of a new talent in the neo-classical world.
£10, Thursday 30th of January 2020, 7.30 PM 10A Bradbury St, Dalston, N16 8JN servantjazzquarters.com