Peter Gilbert

“Peter Gilbert’s [music] is filled with the ghosts of sounds. He captures a dark, yet hopeful wonder through variation in color, mood, and the semblance of melodies.  …Ethereal, ambient, and benignly haunting like a morning fog on the ocean. There is always something hidden, just beyond what is happening, that seems to slowly reveal itself but never quite does.” (American Record Guide)

Peter Gilbert’s work combines traditional instrumental writing with elements of improvisation, live-performed electronics, and other media in works for the concert hall as well as for multi-media theater, film, and installation.  In his words, he attempts to “become enveloped in a musical experience, disappearing into sound.”

He has held artist residencies in Europe and the US at institutions like the ZKM | Institut für Akustik und Musik (Germany), the Aaron Copland House, Akademie Schloss Solitude (Germany), IMEB Bourges (France), La Mortella (Italy), and been in residence at festivals such as the Tage Aktueller Musik Nürnberg (Germany) and the Newburyport Chamber Music Festival.  Accolades and commissions have come from the Barlow Foundation, the Siemens Music Foundation, Kennedy Center Education, New Music USA, Theater Bonn, the NRW Fonds Neues Musiktheater, the Russolo Foundation, Theater Russelsheim, the Look & Listen Festival, the Third Practice Festival, the Institut International de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges, the Washington International Composers Competition, The “Bohemians Prize” from the New York Musicians Club, and the ZKM | Institut für Akustik und Musik.

Gilbert has collaborated with outstanding ensembles such as Lorelei Ensemble, Ekmeles, the Arditti Quartet, Klangforum Heidelberg, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble, Soli Fan Tutti (Staatstheater Darmstadt), New Mexico Winds, Iridium Quartet, Pianarmonio, New Mexico Contemporary Ensemble, Splice Ensemble, Silver Reed Duo, and FretX. He has also written works for renowned soloists such as Emanuele Arciuli, Daniel Lippel, Mario Caroli, Richard White, Jeremias Schwarzer, Camilla Hoitenga, Magdalena Meitzner, Martin Tchiba, Michael Veit, Stephen Porter, Monica Robescu, Jeb Wallace, Michael Walker, Philipp Stäudlin, Michael Norsworthy, Kevin Vigneau, Kimberley Fredenburgh, Carson Cooman, and Terry Everson.  

His music has been included in music festivals and conferences around the world including the ICMC International Conference, Darmstadt Ferienkurse, Society of Composers (SCI) National Conference, SEAMUS National Conference, Electronic Music Midwest, Nuova Consonanza Festival, Muestra de Musica Visual México, Global Composition World Soundscape Conference, Chamber Music Campagna (Italy), Balance-Unbalance International Conference (Australia), STREAMS International Music Festival, New Music Miami ISCM Festival, New Music & Art Festival Bowling Green. Gilbert has done film scoring for numerous celebrated documentaries which have garnered prizes including the Tallgrass Film Festival Outstanding Documentary Feature, Winner—ABQ Indie Film Festival, and the Grand Jury Prize of the Provincetown Film Festival.  

Gilbert’s second portrait album for New Focus Recordings was named Best of 2021 by Sequenza21. His work as a composer, performer and producer can also be heard on other albums at New Focus Recordings as well as on CDs with Innova Recordings, GM Recordings, Sono Luminus, Affeto, Centaur, Neuma Records (forthcoming), as well as at http://petergilbert.net.

He has taught composition, electronic music, music theory and music history at Harvard University, Wellesley College, Northeastern University, University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, Case Western Reserve University, and the Cleveland Institute of Music and he co-founded the Young Composers Program at CIM and was its Co-Directer from 2003-2010.  Since 2010 he has taught at University of New Mexico where is coordinator of the composition and music technology areas.  In 2025 he was awarded one of UNM’s Research and Creative Works Leadership Awards.