Home
Events
New Music
Photos
Links
Education
Contact

Peter Martin is a percussionist specializing in contemporary solo and chamber music.  Peter's eclectic performances and artistic projects encompass a wide variety of musical styles including works from the standard western-classical repertory, experimental music and the avante-garde, popular musical styles, and new music commissioned from leading composers of the new millennium.

Peter has been a featured artist at the Jeju Summer Music Festival of Korea, the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage, The Round Top Festival, the Looptopia Festival, the Soundfield Festival, the Collide Festival, the Rush Hour Concert Series, the Leigh Howard Stevens Summer Marimba Seminar, the Midwest Clinic, and the Percussive Arts Society International Convention.  He has enjoyed competition success as the first prizewinner at the 2003 Percussive Arts Society International Marimba Competition.

Peter is a member of the critically acclaimed ensemble Third Coast Percussion and is the principal percussionist with the Chicago based new music group Ensemble Dal Niente.  He has performed with the Grammy Award winning ensemble Eighth Blackbird, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the Signal ensemble, Opera Moda, Ensemble Noamnesia, the Scandinavian Chamber Orchestra, the Richmond Symphony Orchestra,  the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra, the New Philharmonic, the Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra, the Thodos Dance Company, the Sonic Inertia Performance Group, the Longmount Symphony Orchestra, the Lincolnwood Chamber Orchestra, and was a founding member of the Exit 9 percussion group.

A strong advocate for contemporary music, Peter has been involved with the commissioning and premiere performances of dozens of works for percussion.  He has collaborated with notable 21st Century composers including Martin Bresnick, Lukas Ligeti, Christopher Adler, David T. Little, Anthony Pateras, Mathew Barnsen, Alejandro Viñao, Kirsten Broberg, and Marcos Balter.  Along with Third Coast Percussion, has been the recipient of numerous grant awards for the development and programming of new repertoire.  Upcoming projects include those with composers Augusta Reed Thomas, Glenn Kotche, and Dimitri Tymoczko.

Peter is an Assistant Professor and the Director of Percussion Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA.  He has previously served as a percussion instructor at the Northwestern University School of Music, Trinity International University, and the National High School Music Institute.   A passionate educator at all levels, he has worked with Urban Gateways and the University of Chicago's CONNECT outreach programs in Chicago as well as the New Jersey Chapter of the Young Audiences organization in presenting educational performances to public schools across the Midwest and Northeast U.S. On high demand as a guest clinician and lecturer in the areas of chamber and solo percussion, Peter has appeared at music schools worldwide including the Eastman School of Music, California Institute of the Arts, University of North Texas, University of Central Florida, Seoul National University, St. Cloud State University, Colorado State University, and Iowa State University.  Peter is an artist/endorser for Vic Firth Drumsticks and Mallets and Pearl / Adams Musical Instruments.

Peter is a candidate for the Doctor of Music degree and holds a M.M. in Percussion Performance and Literature from the Northwestern University School of Music where he received the prestigious Program Honors Award in 2004 studying with world-renowned percussion soloist Michael Burritt, Chicago Symphony Orchestra percussionist James Ross, and Grammy Award winning drummer Paul Wertico.  Peter has also studied with She-e Wu at Rutgers University (B.M. - 2002) and marimba virtuoso Leigh Howard Stevens.


.