Bio
Peter Chatterjee is a Bay Area-based composer, arranger, and conductor. He began studying composition at Berklee College of Music, where his primary mentors were Dr. Marti Epstein, Dr. Panagiotis Liaropoulos, Bob Pilkington, Ayn Inserto, and Greg Hopkins. At Berklee, he focused on jazz composition, film scoring, and conducting. He holds a Bachelor’s of Music in jazz composition and film scoring, and graduated summa cum laude. Peter earned his Master’s degree in composition with distinction at California State University, Northridge, where he studied with Dr. Liviu Marinescu and Dr. A.J. McCaffrey.
As a composer and arranger Peter has written for an array of large and small ensembles and across a wide range of musical genres. In his time at Berklee, his output included several works for orchestra, arrangements for small jazz ensemble, extended works for large jazz ensemble, and several short films. His music has been read by ensembles including the Berklee Concert Jazz Orchestra, Berklee Symphonic Orchestra, and the Esterhazy Quartet. In the time since, he has focused on chamber, orchestral, electronic music, while experimenting with new music for large jazz ensemble that will be coming out in the near future. His recent work includes an extended setting of Edgar Allan Poe’s “Spirits of the Dead” for mezzo soprano and large chamber ensemble that was recently recorded, as well as an orchestral work, Winter Sunrise Over the Pacific, that was recently read and recorded as part of the Pacific Chamber Orchestra’s Dream American Composers Workshop.
As a conductor he has worked in both studio sessions and live performance. At Berklee, he was extremely active as a studio conductor for film-scoring sessions, contemporary chamber music, and large jazz ensembles. As a performer, he conducted a number of jazz ensembles and chamber ensembles, including the premier of a brass quintet in the Berklee Performance Center. Recently, most of his conducting has been for chamber music and orchestra, including for projects recorded virtually due to the pandemic.
In addition to his activities as a composer and conductor, Peter is active in music education. Over the past five years he has been a guest-artist and lecturer with the music department at Granada High School. This recurring program occurs in the late spring, and is an introduction to the aesthetics and performance of 20th and 21st century music. Each year, one piece of new music is written, rehearsed and performed in the spring orchestra concert. He is also an active private teacher and tutor, with experience teaching theory, counterpoint, composition, jazz theory, and arranging. He works as a Teaching Artist at the Walnut Creek Center for Community Arts.