Over the years Peter Jarvis, an active percussionist, conductor, composer, copyist and educator, has played with and conducted new music and percussion ensembles in New York, New Jersey and elsewhere including the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Group for Contemporary Music, Talujon Percussion Quartet, The New York Art Ensemble and others including several distinguished orchestras and choruses. Jarvis has performed innumerable premiers including works composed for him and the New Jersey Percussion Ensemble, which he directs, by Milton Babbitt and Charles Wuorinen among dozens other American and international composers. Calabrese Brothers Music (CBM) and the Composers Guild of New Jersey have commissioned several dozen solo pieces for Jarvis, which are published, by CBM, in anthologies of Vibraphone, Timpani and Drum Set music.
As conductor he has appeared as a guest on the San Francisco Symphony's New and Unusual Music Series, with St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble, as a founding member of both Ensemble21, the Cygnus Festival Orchestra and countless others.
His extensive touring has brought him to Asia, Europe, Canada, Mexico, Russia and throughout the United States presenting concerts, solo recitals, clinics and master classes. Jarvis has appeared as a soloist for numerous new music festivals including the Europe Asia Festival in Kazan Russia, The Hong Kong Arts Festival in Hong Kong and Taiwan and as a guest of the ISCM League of Composers in New York. He has performed for Radio Denmark, PBS, Russian and Hong Kong television and WNYC radio in New York. His recordings can be heard on Nonesuch, CRI, Koch International, Composers Guild of New Jersey, October Music (for ECM), Capstone, NAXOS, and Gram recording labels among others. A composer himself, his compositions are published by CBM and he is a member of BMI.
In addition to performing Jarvis works as a consultant, editor, proofreader and copyist for several publishers and is the editor for Calabrese Brothers Music, LLC. Having engraved nearly 200 published scores ranging in scope from pop music through complete operas, he has worked on the music of Pulitzer Prize winning composers Milton Babbitt, Leonard Bernstein, Elliott Carter, Wayne Peterson and Ned Rorem; he has been George Walker’s exclusive copyist since the mid 1990’s. His copying work, in text books and scores, is published, by C.F. Peters, Boosey & Hawkes, MMB, Praeger, Greenwood Press, PEER Music International, Subito, Theodore Presser, Seesaw, APNM, American Composer Alliance, CBM and several other publishers in the United States and abroad.
Jarvis is on the faculty of Connecticut College, William Paterson University and SUNY Westchester Community College. His teaching includes academic classes, percussion lessons, coaching and conducting percussion and new music ensembles and directing the new music series at both WPU and Connecticut College.
Selected Press
"Hardish's Solo for Pete, a work for drumset with plenty of jazzy licks, reminds friends that Pat, too began his musical career playing the drumset like nobody's business. (We have heard him demonstrate that for us in person.) But on this occasion, Pat deferred to percussionist Peter Jarvis, an extraordinary musician with an artistry that produces a dynamic excitement in the delivery, and not just a 'hit man'." - New Music Connoisseur - September 2009
"In Solo for Pete we got plenty of exuberant musicality, a virtuosic wild ride. It was a WOW!" - New Music Connoisseur Spring/Summer 2008
"Peter Jarvis conducted the 40-minute piece (Percussion Symphony) without score, yet did full justice to it's rhythmic complexities; Mr. Jarvis and his forces richly deserved the standing ovation they received." - New York Times
"Though the maundering unisons (Rakowski's Sesso e Violenza) worked the conductor, Peter Jarvis, into a lather with their evident metrical complexity. - New York Times
"Mr. Jarvis played Sometimes with appropriate restraint and subtlety, just as he played Rainsticks with flamboyant energy." - New Music Connousseur - Joyellen Snellgrove, 2004
"It was a power (NJPE, conductor Peter Jarvis) that went beyond mere shock value." - New York Times
"While the new music scene abounds with percussionists, only a very few can match the awesome musicianship of Peter Jarvis." - New Music Connoisseur
"Kudos to the 'indefatigable' Peter Jarvis as one of the composers admiringly referred to him, who compiled, edited and engraved the music found in this meritorious vibraphone project." - Percussion Arts Society - Percussive Notes Magazine, June, 2005
"In Jarvis' hands the working out of dynamics in Homily was startling in its effectiveness, and Babbitt's ear for colors in something as supposedly limited as a snare drum was revealed." - Classical New Jersey
"I feel as if I am interviewing a world-class chef (Peter Jarvis) who wants me to believe haute cuisine is not much different from boiling water or making toast." - US 1
"Masked Dances, the composer asks for virtuosic playing of the highest order in tandem with electronics. Such a requirement can be fraught with problems, not to mention Murphy's Law. Cues have to be carefully worked out in advance. That all came off without the hint of a hitch and that Mr. Jarvis produced a spectacular solo performance of these widly rhytmic studies was, in a word, the highlight of the evening." - New Music Connoisseur
"Best percussion group in the world." - Nieuwsbald van het Noorden, (Groningen, Holland)
"A mastery synthesis of avant garde percussion techniques." - Downbeat
"Peter Jarvis' reading (of Ionisation) was again restrained, emphasizing legato phrasing. In context of the other works on the program it was a touching statement to render this standard repertoire piece as if it were by a reincarnation of Mozart." - Classical New Jersey
"Excellent US group." - BBC.UK.COM, 2005
"Founded by Raymond DesRoches in 1968 and conducted by Peter Jarvis, the New Jersey Percussion Ensemble gained national prominence as a group of gifted musicians committed to the promulgation of 20-century percussion repertory." - The Reporter (California)
"Were it not for concert protocol, there might have been dancing in the aisles to the music of Cage's Second Construction and Third Construction." - The Star Ledger
"That imaginative leap that distinguishes good music from routine." - Records and Recordings
"The performances are top-notch -- it would be foolhardy to approach a Babbitt score with anything less than relaxed virtuosity." - Fanfare Magazine
"The presentation of the Rzewski composition (Coming Together) was as grand and exciting as a Mahler symphony. The audience was left breathless by the histrionics, the virtuosity, the interpretation, the rigorous baton of maestro Jarvis, and the dedication of the performers to bring about this epic twentieth-century composition." - New Music Connoisseur
"Particularly lovely was Peter Jarvis on Marimba, whose delicate, hollow and carefully placed notes epitomized the haunting power of the second movement." - Princeton Packet
"Just counting the piece is a major challenge; the rapid meter changes read like an algebra equation: 2/2, 13/16, 5/8, 5+4+3/16, 5/8, etc. Jarvis conducted it from memory. Not only did he keep everything together, but he went a step further, coaxing music from all those boxes and skins and pipes and blocks of wood. The first movement ended with a lazy long slowing-down and lingering ring that was a masterful example of the conductors craft. Sandwiched between the percussive movements of the piece are melodic sections based on a medieval song by Guillaume Dufay. The conductor must do much more than beat time here, he must sculpt melody, and Jarvis did it so a listener forgot to breathe. His musicians, bobbing, twitching and practically dancing at their instruments were obviously having the time of their lives." - The Bergen Record
"One cannot imagine better ambassadors for their music. Their ensemble playing was perfect in precision and physical presence." - The Christian Daily Newspaper (Copenhagen, Denmark)
"The New Jersey Percussion Ensemble is a national treasure. Nothing less can fairly describe this team." - The Star Ledger
"Depending among other things on the availability of performers like Peter Jarvis, who demonstrated his vaunted skills here completely." - New Music Connoisseur - Summer/Fall - 2006
"Moore, O'Connor, Stewart and Jarvis gave it a blithe, bravura performance." - Los Angeles Times
"The virtuoso Jarvis commands the sonic space, participating as a live vocal source while his timpani, provoked by the unknown world of electronic voices, establish order for the 'Occasional Demons.'" - New Music Connoisseur - Winter, 2007
"Jarvis' podium style embedded precision within flowing gestures, a philosophy of movement which clearly transferred itself to the players." - Classical New Jersey
"The loudest approval went to the most radical work, John Cage's Third Construction, in a bristling, electric performance by the New Jersey Percussion Ensemble (Peter Jarvis, Michael Frasche, John Ferrari, Kenneth Piascik). One does not often hear so many shouted bravos from such a staid audience." - New York Times
"Surely no piece of cake, the work was impressively conducted by Peter Jarvis." - Star Ledger
"The New Jersey Percussion Ensemble, conducted by Peter Jarvis, is a marvelous group of 24 musicians who play with a welcome sensitivity to the repertoire." - San Francisco Examiner
"Peter Jarvis and John Ferrari gave virtuoso performances of Yttrehus' jagged but hypnotic music." - Trenton Times
"Peter Jarvis' reading (of Ionisation) was again restrained, emphasizing legato phrasing. In context of the other works on the program it was a touching statement to render this standard repertoire piece as if it were by a reincarnation of Mozart." - Classical New Jersey
"Conducted by memory by Peter Jarvis. . . it is a riotous celebration of rhythm - colorful and even poetic." - New Yotk Times
"Best of all was the New Jersey Percussion Ensemble, the country's pre-eminent such group of it's kind since it's inception in 1968. This muscular, energetic band of percussionists plays with a kind of unrestrained virtuosity, worthy of the best of today's chamber ensembles." - Newsday
"Peter Jarvis led the New Jersey Percussion Ensemble in a precise, tactile performance with an elastic pulse." - New York Times
"Certainly no one hears anything less than music of solid merit and performances of brilliant virtuosity. That surely describes the concert given by the New Jersey Percussion Ensemble." - New York Magazine
"Peter Jarvis and the players were superb, New Jersey can be proud." - Star Ledger
"The New Jersey Percussion Ensemble is a first-class group, and the recording is very clear, bright, and faithful to the character of the various instruments. The two golden oldies more than justify acquisition if you have any interest in the genre."- High Fidelity
"Finally the New Jersey Percussion Ensemble gave a hugely exciting performance of Percussion Quartet." - New York Times
"It was delightful music played perfectly." - Asbury Park Press
"Recorded in an old theater in New Jersey, the album is a fine example of the recording art, a disc that should satisfy the most discriminating audiophile." - The Chattanooga Times, Chattanooga, Tennessee
"If you have strong ears and an open mind, don't miss this."- The New Records
"They proved extraordinarily vital, performing music that demands the utmost concentration as if it were in their veins, as undoubtedly it is." - News - Times
"A 1987 work for Solo Snare Drum (Homily), Peter Jarvis played the complex rhythms strongly." - Asbury Park Press
Compositions
The compositions that are listed below are published by
Calabrese Brothers Music, LLC.
http://calabresebrothersmusic.com
Oasis (2009) - Solo Electric Bass
Wind Tunnel (2009) - Solo Flute
Tunes Without Pitches (2009) - Solo Snare Drum
Solo for Two Kick Drums (2007) - Double Bass Drum Solo
Metallic Music (2005) - Solo for Six Gongs: recoded by Dominic Donato
The Snares of Time (2005) - Solo Snare Drum: recorded by John Ferrari
Extreme Measures (2005) - Solo Marimba: recoded by Tom Kolor
Four Plus Three (2003) - Solo Drum Set: recorded by Shawn Baltazor
Pitched Drums (1999) - Solo Timpani - recorded by April McCloskey
Seven at Seven (1998) - Solo Vibraphone: recorded by Peter Jarvis
Hey Pete, Thanx for the contact. Think of you and Bill on the Hill daze often. . . Can't help it. ANYHOO I hope the concert last monday went well [I'm sure it did] I was gonna come up but this weeks schedule didn't warrent it. CONGRATS on the tympani piece. I'll try for a future concert. I could use a new music blast WPC. . . . I mean WPU style. . . Joe
