Welcome to Peter Willsher's web site!

INTRODUCTION »

Well let's see...

... I started music at the age of seven. After many false starts, I decided on the piano. At age 11 my music teacher made me learn the clarinet instead! However, I missed the piano, and so started again at age 17. I learned most of my music from Ken Ascot – my church choir director. At conservatoire I majored in clarinet, but also completed a degree with piano as the major. I was in an amazing band with Linda Bryan, Dave Lane and Tony Troughton-Smith when I was in grades 11 and 12. Unfortunately, it folded when I went to Trinity College of Music in 1969. I studied with Bernard Keeffe, Franco Ferrara, Tony Lindsay ( a student of Michelangeli) and Paul Harvey (of the London Saxophone Quartet). I was even accepted by the Great One himself – Bernstein – but unfortunately his untimely death nixed the opportunity

After teaching in private schools in the UK for 15 years, I left England and came to the New World in 1988, where I have been writing music for professional and aspiring musicians, and my children. Presently I conduct a choir and an orchestra in Montreal. My most recent project was a large scale work for choir, orchestra and soloists, which received its world premiere in Montreal in April 2008 and was written in the hopes of drawing some attention to the plight of deprived and suffering children.

The other side of my eclectic musical interests are in pop. I have been a longtime fan of the Beatles, Chicago, and any band that writes and performs with real musicianship. I've written hundreds of pop/rock tracks, many co-written with Danny Storazuk, an amazing lyricist. If anyone wants a sample, please let me know.

RECENT NEWS »

• Peter Willsher's 1975 Composition Everyone Suddenly Burst Out Singing performed on BBC's 2008 Remembrance Sunday episode of Songs of Praise
Lyrics from Siegfried Sassoon's Poem "Everyone Sang"

RECENT CONCERTS »

• Cavalleria Rusticana with internationally renowned tenor Manrico Tedeschi
• Handel’s Messiah

UPCOMING CONCERTS »

• Bach Mass in B minor - December 6, 2008 - Sainte-Genevieve Church (16037 Boul Gouin West . Montreal . QC . H9H 1C7)
• Mozart Requiem - TBA

RECENT COMPOSITIONS »

The Journey 2007
a cantata for soprano and bass soloists, chorus and orchestra.
Words and music by Peter Willsher