Peter Rothbart confesses to donning a sequined tuxedo while playing disco/funk/rock during his 1970s tours of North America. Along the way, he managed to acquire undergraduate music degrees in bassoon and saxophone (UMass/Amherst and the Eastman School of Music). His search for the perfect lick led to a Master’s degree in Woodwinds (Ithaca College School of Music) and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition from the Cleveland Institute of Music. He has studied jazz with Max Roach, Archie Shepp, Steve Brown and Bill Dobbins, saxophone with Steve Mauk and Ray Ricker, bassoon with members of the Boston Symphony and Sandy Sharoff a legendary Broadway musician, and composition with Donald Erb, Joseph Schwantner, William Penn, Wayne Barlow and Sam Adler.
While ascending the ranks to Professor Emeritus at Ithaca College, Peter developed three electroacoustic music studios and one film scoring studio over his 40-year tenure. He directed the Cornell Jazz Ensembles for several years, expanding it into two large ensembles. He continues to play sax with the Rochester-based Nik and the Nice Guys (sans sequins). After 37 years, Peter recently retired from holding the third bassoon/contrabassoon chair with the Binghamton Philharmonic. As of 2023, he is now leading the Ageless Jazz Band from the First Alto chair.
Peter’s concert compositions are published by Seesaw (Subito) Music, the International Trumpet Guild, Roger Dean Publications (Lorenz Music) and Brixton Publications. He has authored over 300 articles working as a music columnist and critic for DownBeat Magazine, the Ithaca Journal, Ithaca Times and the Cleveland Plain Dealer. His book, “The Synergy of Film and Music: Sight and Sound in Five Hollywood Films” (Scarecrow Press) is tearing up the Amazon Best Seller Books Chart at number 4,823,210. He shares his hectic life with his wife Linda, Arlo the dog and Annie the parrot who continues to scream, “Tune it!”