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Peter Dugan

Peter Dugan
Gerard Collett

Pianist Peter Dugan has been praised by the Capital Gazette as “nothing short of superb” and by the Baltimore Sun as “spellbinding.” Prizing versatility as the key to the future of classical music, Mr. Dugan is equally at home in classical, jazz, and pop idioms. He has appeared as a soloist throughout the United States, including performances in New York’s Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall, and Philadelphia’s Academy of Music and Verizon Hall. He has also performed internationally in Canada, South America, the Cayman Islands, and across Europe. This season, Mr. Dugan appears as a soloist with the New World Symphony under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas.

A sought-after crossover artist, Mr. Dugan recently performed duos with violinists Itzhak Perlman and Joshua Bell in memorial concerts for Marvin Hamlisch at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater in New York and The Delacorte Theater in Central Park. He has performed his solo arrangements of Hamlisch tunes in tribute concerts on Broadway and at the Public Theater’s annual gala in Central Park.

Dugan’s collaboration with violinist Charles Yang, which the Wall Street Journal called a “classical-meets-rockstar duo,” has garnered critical acclaim across the United States. Yang and Dugan’s recent performances include the Brauntex Performing Arts Theater in Texas, Joe’s Pub in New York City, and Juilliard’s “Dreams Come True” Gala. This past summer, Yang and Dugan were in residence at the Discovery Channel’s Curiosity Retreat in Colorado and at pianoSonoma, a music festival in California.

An enthusiastic chamber musician, Dugan has studied under and collaborated with Donald Weilerstein, Paul Katz, and Itzhak Perlman, including a 2010 performance of Schubert’s Trout Quintet with Mr. Perlman at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Dugan has performed chamber music across the United States and Canada, as well as abroad in South America and Europe, including a 2013 recital with violinist Sean Lee at the Wiener Konzerthaus in Vienna. As a member of the Tristan Piano Quartet for three years, Dugan performed across the country, including residencies in Palm Beach and Lake Wales, Florida, and recitals at New York’s Alice Tully Hall and New Jersey’s South Orange Performing Arts Center. Dugan’s chamber music recitals this season will include appearances at the Kennedy Center, the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach, and Chicago’s Spring Lieder Lounge.

Dugan is a frequent performer of new music. He has appeared for two consecutive years at Juilliard’s Focus Festival and, in 2013, joined the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) for a residency at Dartmouth College, workshopping a new opera by Phil Kline and Jim Jarmusch. Dugan has also premiered works by composer Leonardo Dugan across the United States and abroad as part of the International Holland Music Sessions.

Peter performs regularly in hospitals, nursing homes, and community centers throughout New York City. He advocates the importance of music in the community and at all levels of society. As a founding creator and the pianist for OPERAtion Superpower, a superhero opera for children, Peter has travelled to dozens of schools in the greater New York area, performing for students in public and private schools and encouraging them to use their talents – their superpowers – for good.

Peter was born and raised in Philadelphia, PA where he studied under Aida Epstein and Harvey Wedeen. In 2011, he received a Bachelor of Music degree from the Juilliard School and was awarded the John Erskine Commencement Prize for outstanding artistic and academic achievement. A Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholar, Peter received a Master of Music degree from Juilliard in 2014, where he studied under Matti Raekallio. Peter serves on the faculty at St. Thomas Choir School in New York. In his spare time, he enjoys painting, cooking, composing, and writing.

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