Vancouver pianist Dan Graham is an entertainer seasoned with a plethora of musical styles. A performer of exceptional quality, Dan will highlight your atmosphere with inspired renditions of memorable favourites from show-tunes to top-forty hits, from classical treasures to classic rock megahits, from beautiful movie themes to straight-ahead jazz.
Utilizing a vast and diverse musical repertoire, Dan explores a wide variety of artists such as Elton John, Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Stevie Wonder, The Carpenters, Billy Holiday, George Gershwin, Journey, The Eagles, Marvin Gaye, Simon & Garfunkel, Miles Davis, Fleetwood Mac, Scott Joplin, Barbra Streisand, Duke Ellington, The Doors, Louis Armstrong, David Bowie, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Billy Joel, and countless others. Of course, Dan also takes requests and can learn pre-requested music for your upcoming event as well.
Dan Graham was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1970. The family moved to Winnipeg in '74 where Dan enjoyed an idyllic upbringing, just down the road from picturesque Assiniboine Park, in St. James. It was in this prairie city that he began his piano lessons at age 8 with Dorothy Funnel, a private piano teacher who lived down the street. She instructed Dan in the Royal Conservatory of Music until grade 8 of that program.
The family moved to Vancouver in '84 and Dan began lessons with renowned classical piano teacher Edward Parker (who taught his own nephew Jon-Kimura Parker, winner of Leeds). Under Parker's tutelage, Dan achieved a higher level of classical performance and took part in various piano competitions around Vancouver's lower mainland, often taking home first or second prize. After completing grade 10 of the Conservatory, however, a new and exciting musical path had presented itself to the young budding musician: the intriguing world of jazz...
Following high school, Dan attended the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston. It was here where the pianist fully learned the art of improvisation, how to quickly learn music by ear, and how to craft songs into on-the-spot arrangements. Upon graduating (with a degree in Jazz Composition and Arranging), Dan then delighted in performing with various jazz and R&B musicians on the Vancouver scene throughout the years, all the while developing and refining his own sound as a jazz artist. Not content to explore a singular musical direction, however, Dan has continued to explore other genres, in particular 20th-century contemporary classical music, and the baroque music of J.S. Bach.
Dan has since settled into the art form of solo piano. It is here, this medium, where Dan has rediscovered his roots of popular musical style, all the while simultaneously drawing upon his various accomplishments as an artist, and ultimately cultivating a unique personal style all his own.
