An Award-Winning Master of Genre-Busting Music, Composer-Pianist-Vocalist Peter Saltzman Has Produced Everything From Whimsical One-Minute songs to Brilliant Improvisations to Complex but Accessible Orchestral Scores.
“Imaginative…brilliant”—Chicago Tribune
Check out the music. Check out the podcast. And don’t forget to read the blogs!
Intro to Peter Saltzman
Don’t know where to start? Click for a quick intro to the art of Peter Saltzman…
Project 88 Solo Piano Concert
Peter Saltzman Solo Piano Live, Saturday,November 11, 2023, 6:30 pm
I am performing a rare solo piano concert as a part of the Project 88 Concert series in Berwyn on Saturday, November 11, 2023, @ 6:30 PM.
Location: 6720 31st Street, Berwyn, IL 60402 (Unity Lutheran Church)
Tickets are free (donations accepted), but seats you can reserve your seats here. Seats are filling up fast, so don’t delay.
As you can see in the program below, I’ll be performing an even mix of my originals and arrangments of some pretty well-known tunes. (Expect to be surprised by the latter: these are anything but standard jazzy arrangments of pop tunes.)
Program:
- Improvised Overture to Act 1: Aggressively……………….. Peter Saltzman
- Two New Blues……………………………………………………………. Saltzman
Blues in Satie (2007)
Seven Gear Blues (2007)- Nocturne 1: Cinematic Scene ……………………………………..Saltzman
- I Am the Walrus…………………………………. John Lennon (arr. Saltzman)
- Nocturne 2: Brooklyn, 1986, Evening (2014)…………………………. Saltzman
- Two Jazz Standards
‘Round Midnight…………………… Thelonious Monk/Saltzman
13 Variables on a Theme by Coltrane (2016-2023)………………. SaltzmanINTERMISSION
- Improvised Overture to Act 2: Pop Counterpoint ………….. Saltzman
- Prelude, Feud &Vamp in C (2012)…………………………….. Saltzman
- Rewriting Bach, Part 1…………………………..J.S. Bach/Saltzman
- Epilogue
Sound of Silence………………………….. Paul Simon/Peter Saltzman
Rondo Blues (2013)………………………….. Saltzman
Contact: info@petersaltzman.com
Welcome to 2099!
Below is the trailer for my TV show, 2099, best viewed on a large screen with decent speakers or headphones.
Musically Novel
I’ve moved most of my writing to Substack…
Substack, as you may know, is the latest hot platform for writers and while it is far from perfect, it’s a good place for me to park my two primary writing projects (besides the TV show, which doesn’t belong there at all): Blues, Preludes & Feuds and Music For Its Own Sake. I could say more, but why not head over there and see what it’s about…
Provocative Podcast
Improvisations on the Ledge is a podcast about what’s really going on inside the music. For both serious listeners and serious musicians.
IOTL S3-E3: The Theme Dream Machine
Three Sides of A Musical Coin In this highly accessible solo piano program, I creatively blend three musical traditions—classical, jazz, and pop—into one. Combining my own compositions and well-known works by composers like J.S. Bach, John Coltrane, and John Lennon...
“Improvisations on The Ledge is a must for musicians, composers, music fans, artists, and indeed anyone with an interest in and appreciation for organic music and creative expression in their purest forms.”
— Rebecca Cullen, Stereo Stickman
Deep Music
Jazz? Classical? Pop? Avant-Garde? No, just great music.
All together. Like it’s meant to be!
Featured Album
Timlessly Unhip Pop Songs
These were already timelessly unhip pop songs when I first released some of them 17 years ago. That’s the beauty. They’ll always be timelessly unhip!
Featured Track
“Just Plain Genius”
The Song in Between
When does a melody become something other than a song? Easy: when you develop the theme beyond what we are familiar with as being “a song.” But does that mean it’s no longer a song?
“A Genius Musical Craftsman”
Painted Piano?
Introducing Piano Sketches
Watch and listen as painter Jeremy Harrison and pianist Peter Saltzman perform duets—across art forms!
A Pop Arty Abstraction
This trippy Jeremy Harrison painting, improvised on Peter Saltzman’s solo piano improvisation Poppy Asymmetric Bounce, perfectly captures the color and whimsy of the music.
Featured Piano Sketch
Merged: Painted Music
It’s painted music, as Jeremy Harrison improvises an impermanent painting on his Buddha Board to a frenetic Peter Saltzman piano improv.
And Read About the Concept