Tam De Villiers

Of course, there is a primus inter pares in the Tam de Villiers 4tet, a fact that the band name makes clear. Tam de Villiers is the composer of the music and lyrics. His lyrics sound so poetic that they even produce an effect without music, or – to put it in a better way – even sound like music. Only someone whose native language is English can write in this way. Tam de Villiers was born in England in 1979 and grew up in South Africa, Scotland and England. He learned to play violin when he was four and took up piano a few years later; he started playing guitar when he was 15. He was awarded a Master's Degree from the Leeds College of Music in 2001. After he moved to Paris in 2003, he studied at the Conservatoire de Montrieul and met teachers and musicians such as Marc Ducret, Stephane Payen and Paul and Fabrizio Cassol.