Native San Franciscan, Vince Peterson is now a Brooklyn-based composer, conductor, and keyboardist. He is the founder of the critically-acclaimed vocal ensemble, Choral Chameleon, which now celebrates its fifth anniversary season, and which has made significant strides in modern choral music. The New York Times called Peterson “authoritative beyond his years,” and The Brooklyn Eagle praised his concert programming as “a stunning symphony of the spiritual and secular”, while hailing him as a solo performer “with depth and vigor” who “provided a universal context which resonated with his audience.”
Commissioners and distinguished performers of his compositions include Cantori New York, The Monmouth Civic Chorus, Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts, The San Francisco Arts Education Project, and the multi-Grammy® award winning ensemble, Chanticleer, among others. His works have been performed in major concert halls including Chicago Symphony Hall, San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House, Bela Bartok National Concert Hall in Budapest, and New York’s own Metropolitan Museum of Art. His arrangement of Tom Waits’ “Temptation” was called “hard to top” by the San Francisco Chronicle and was recently performed live on Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion”.
In addition to this work, he serves Brooklyn College (CUNY) as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Music, teaching ear training and theory. He also serves as Organist and Choirmaster of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn where he directs a thriving volunteer-based music program and curates an annual concert series. He holds the BMus in Composition from The San Francisco Conservatory of Music and a double MM in Composition and Choral Conducting from Mannes College of Music in Manhattan. He has also studied abroad in Paris at La Schola Cantorum and L’École Normale de Musique.
