Peter Kater's Page

PIANIST-COMPOSER-PRODUCER - PETER KATER


Five Time Grammy Award nominee, multi-platinum selling pianist, Peter Kater, has written the music for over one hundred television and film programs including eleven On and Off-Broadway dramatic plays. His more than 50 critically acclaimed CD releases in 25 years range from Contemporary Jazz, World Fusion and Native American collaborations to full orchestrations and of course, his signature solo piano recordings. His Ambrosia CD released in Sept. 2008 received a Grammy Award nomination for Best New Age album of 2008. His PIANO recording, released in October of 2003 was Nominated for the "Best New Age Album" 2004 Grammy Award and his RED MOON CD was Grammy Nominated in 2003; his FIRE CD was nominated for the 2005 Grammy Award and FACES OF THE SUN for the 2007 Grammy Award. Receiving extensive world-wide airplay on a diverse array of radio formats, Kater’s broad creative stroke has touched millions of hearts. In addition, because of his commitment and dedication to the environment and humanitarian causes, Peter was honored with the Environmental Leadership Award by the United Nations and continues to perform over 50 concerts each year.

He's also completed the full orchestra score to the animated Feature Film, THE LEGEND OF SECRET PASS due to be released in early 2009. Peter finished the score to the mult award winning film "10 Questions for the Dalai Lama". The film received 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 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. Kater has garnered awards such as New Age Voice magazine’s 1998 Best Meditation/Healing Award for his Compassion CD and the 1998 Visionary Retailers First Place Award for World Flutes I. Tower Records’ Pulse magazine placed his Dance Of Innocents recording with Nawang Khechog in the Top 100 Independent Records of 1998;. 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.

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.