Dierk Peters is a Brooklyn, NY based Vibraphonist, Marimbist, Composer and Educator, originally from Hamburg, Germany. His musical endeavor started by playing the drums from age 8 till 18, when he switched to his now main instrument the Vibraphone. After several lessons and workshops with Florian Poser, David Friedman, Franck Tortiller and others he began his studies at the HFMT Cologne with Prof. Tom Van der Geld in 2007 and graduated with honors in 2012.
Before the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) gave him the opportunity to move to New York and enroll to the Jazz-Performance master program at the New York University in 2016 he lived and worked in Cologne, Germany, where he still is an active member of the young and vibrant music scene. At NYU he studied with Stefon Harris, Drew Gress, Chris Potter and many others.
For his second year of Masters he transferred to Manhattan School of Music, and was the first student in the schools history who has been permitted to do so. At MSM he continued to study with Stefon Harris, as well as Matthew Ward, Phil Markowitz and Chris Rosenberg, and got his degree ‘Master of Music’ in May 2018.
With the ‘Charlotte Greve / Dierk Peters Duo’ he won the ‘Jugend Jazzt’ competitions and got special soloist awards, regional in 2006 and national in 2007. In 2008 the duo earned the ‘Praetorius Musik Preis – Niedersachsen’, the highest music price of his state of Lower Saxony.
He also got a special soloist price at the ‘B-Jazz’ competition in Burghausen and won the ‘Convento Jazzpreis’ with his band ‘Offshore‘, both in 2011.
His quintet ‘Offshore’, which he co-leads with pianist Constantin Krahmer, released 3 records on DoubleMoon and Klaeng Records, its debut ‘Côte de Cologne‘ was released within the ‘Next Generation‘ – Series of DoubleMoon Records and the magazine ‘Jazzthing‘. The band had support of the ‘Initiative Musik‘ and played hundreds of shows since its first release.
His quartet ‘Botter’, also run in co-leadership with saxophonist Julian Ritter, released its debut in 2015. All 4 records got the attention of almost all jazz related magazines and broadcast channels in Germany and led him to play at such prestigious festivals like the WDR Jazzfest Köln 2013, Jazzwoche Burghausen 2013, Jazzlights Festival 2014, Jazzfestival Saarbrücken 2014, Ehinger Jazztage 2014, Jazzrallye Düsseldorf 2015 and many more.
His first project as a solo-leader ‘Ambrosia‘ was recorded in Fall 2017 in cooperation with the ‘Deutschlandfunk‘ and with support of the state of Lower Saxony,