About the Guest Artist
with the Vermont Philharmonic

Peter Asimov October 9 & 16, 2005 PETER ASIMOV was born into the well known Asimov family of writers and critics, including the science fiction and science writer Isaac Asimov, a grand uncle, in New York City on October 31, 1991. He will attend eighth grade at The Town School this fall. He is an Honors student in the Preparatory Division of the Mannes College of Music. He studies composition with Steven Sacco, piano with Genya Paley and chamber music with Eileen Buck. Since Peter gave his first professional solo recital in CAMI Hall in New York in October 2002, his performance schedule has taken him to venues ranging from Alaska to Key West. In 2003 he was guest soloist in Bach's F minor Concerto with the Keys Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Gordon Wright. In 2004, he was invited back to play both the Mozart F Major Concerto and Mendelssohn G minor Concerto. In April of this year, Peter performed the Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11, by Frederic Chopin, with the Anchorage Civic Orchestra, under guest conductor Gordon Wright. In his review of Peter's "passionate playing,", Mike Dunham, classical music critic for the Anchorage Daily News, wrote "I wasn't the only one skeptical about whether such a young person could find the emotion in Chopin's deeply sensual music. Now I believe. More than that, Asimov definitely succeeded in conveying the soul of the music. Even more, he managed to do it in commendable cooperation with the orchestra." An active composer, Peter won an ASCAP Morton Gould Award in 2003 and 2004 and was a finalist in 2002. He has premiered more than a dozen of his own works and is a member of Making Score, the rigorous composition lab of the New York Youth Symphony. In April 2003, he performed his ASCAP award-winning piano quartet Seasons Suite in an orchestral arrangement by Gordon Wright, with the KCO. Peter's Wedding Quintet in E Flat Major received its premiere in October, 2003, by the San Francisco Conservatory Quintet at the wedding of Nanette Asimov and Hugh Byrne. This piece will be performed by the Vermont Philharmonic in its Fall concert.