   PIANIST-COMPOSER-PRODUCER
- PETER KATER
In addition to his four recent Grammy Award Nominations Kater has been nominated seven times for the Indie "Best New Age Album" award, winning the award in 1992 for his critically acclaimed album, Migration, with Native American flutist R. Carlos Nakai. He also contributed two songs to the acclaimed SACRED SPIRIT recording which sold over 5 million CDs. The majority of his albums have appeared in the Top 10 of National Airplay charts and in the Top 20 of Billboard’s New Age and Contemporary Jazz charts Peter has also recently finished the score to the film "10 Questions for the Dalai Lama". The film is currently winning awards at film festivals around the world (www.10questionsforthedalailama.com) and is expecting a major national release in 2007. Over the last few years Peter has written the music for several short films and was heard in the NBC broadcast of the 2000 & 2004 Summer Olympics; he collaborated with Kenny Loggins on his December CD and performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City. In addition to scoring for television, video and film projects, Kater has written the music for various award winning Broadway and Off-Broadway dramatic plays. He has collaborated with legendary director Marshall Mason; Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, Lanford Wilson; and actors including John Malkovich, Jon Voight, Ethan Hawke, Tyne Daly, Tony Randall, Joan Allen, Christopher Reeve, Jennifer Jason-Leigh, Judd Hirsch, Laura Linney and Christine Lahti to name a few. Also, through repeated invitations to perform at various exclusive events at Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute and John Denver’s Choices for the Future and countless environmental and humanitarian symposiums around the world, Kater has had the honor of performing for celebrities and dignitaries such as Mikhail Gorbachev, George Bush, Thich Nhat Hanh, Gerald Ford, Ted Turner, Shirley Maclaine, Dustin Hoffman, Sean Connery, Sidney Pollack, Alan Alda, Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, Dennis Weaver, Griffin Dunne, Raul Julia, Karl Malden, Laura Dern, James L. Brooks and many others. Of German birth and descent, Peter moved to New Jersey from Munich, Germany at the age of four and began studying the piano, at his mother’s demand, when he was seven. Seven years of classical training led into playing Rock & Roll and Top 40 bands around New Jersey and New York while studying contemporary improvisation. Moving to Boulder, Colorado at the age of eighteen, he began a six-year period of playing only improvisationally in clubs throughout the Rocky Mountain region. “I didn’t want to play anything the same way twice, being in the moment and spontaneous was very important to me, both musically and personally”, said Kater. When he was twenty years old he accepted a scholarship to the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles but quit after two months, preferring his life as a professional musician. When Kater realized that his next step was composing and recording his music, he moved back to Colorado “to a less external, more inspiring natural environment” and released his first album of piano solos, SPIRIT, in 1983. To his surprise his albums started receiving national attention and charting in the Top 10. Other opportunites started coming his way in the form of phone calls from various television and theatre directors and producers and Kater started to branch out and explore many avenues of creative expression and composition. Since then he's recorded and performed nationally and internationally with some of the worlds most talented and accomplished musicians, actors, directors and authors. Currently Peter lives in Southern California enjoying the climate, lifestyle and the incredible resource of talent and creative opportunities that exist there.
Selected National Scoring Credits Film (Incidental Music) Television Broadway Discovery Channel Disney Channel Entertainment Channel
Oxygen PBS
QUOTES Kater is astute. He seems to know the piano as well as Babe Ruth knew baseball or Hemingway the art of fiction. --- Rocky Mountain News If
Peter Kater's Compassion, the second release in EarthSea Records
Healing Arts Series, is any indication of what is to come; we have
much to anticipate. Essence - The genius of Peter Kater rises like the tide and transports us to a deeper region. ---NAPRA Review Kater has earned a distinct place among the most respected and prolific artists of the genre. --- Jazziz Peter
Kater has returned to the solo piano format (Soul Nature), where
he began, a more mature and deeper composer…. Kater’s
classical background informs, but doesn’t dominate music that
is at turns playfully melodic, exploratory, and introspective. On
Soul Nature, Kater has it! You can sense it… He’s got
the chops and more … Fans of Keith Jarrett’s solo works
should embrace Kater’s sincerity and passion at the keys! The
pianist's latest (Rooftops) soars with glistening tunes ... sparkling
... radio friendly ... gently elegant. This gem (Rooftops) is perhaps the sweetest and most infectious release of the young year ... astonishingly lovely compositions. --- Music Connection Migration is an intensely moving collaboration which exemplifies creativity, purpose and melody in music ... pure pleasure. --- Body Mind Spirit Magazine Peter deserves high accolades for his musical achievements ... he can fully explore the creative potential of his instrument ... a remarkable gift for improvisation ... I honestly felt chills as he began to play his exquisite music. --- New Frontier Magazine Kater's
Rooftops is one of 91's best discs. Now discover what you've been
missing and enjoy the holiday season with a true master. This (Honorable Sky) is music that in all its quietude forces one to listen and be moved by its beauty. --- Oakland Tribune
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