Pete Ganbarg

Pete Ganbarg is a 2-time Grammy Award-winning music business executive[1][2] who served as President of A&R at Atlantic Records from 2008-2024.[3][4][5][6] He currently serves as President of Pure Tone Records.[7]

Pete began his career in A&R in 1989 at SBK Records through a mutual friendship with SBK founder Charles Koppelman's son, Brian Koppelman.[8] Brian had previously encouraged Pete to join the label while student-teaching English in Middletown, Connecticut, stating “one day you have to work for my dad.” When SBK ceased operations in the late-1990s, Pete joined Clive Davis at Arista Records as Sr. Director, A&R. The first artist he worked with at Arista was Santana,[3] for whom Pete conceived and A&R’d the 30× Platinum World Wide, 9X Grammy Winning Album of the Year, Supernatural.

In early 2001, Pete left Arista and joined Epic Records as Sr. Vice President, A&R.

Pete left Epic in late 2003 to start his own A&R consulting business, Pure Tone Music.[9] Pure Tone's label clients included Arista Records, RCA Records, Virgin Records, and Atlantic Records. Company projects included albums by Daughtry, Kelly Clarkson, David Cook, Halestorm, Train, Santana, Kenny G, Aaron Neville, America, Donna Summer, and Chaka Khan.

He joined Atlantic Records as Executive Vice President/Head of A&R in mid-October 2008[6] and was named President of A&R in late 2017, a position he held until May 2024.

As of 2021, he also hosts "Rock & Roll High School," a podcast interview series that spotlights figures from the history of contemporary music.[10][11]

Ganbarg is a graduate of Wesleyan University.[12]

  1. ^ Kenney, Laurie (January 28, 2018) "Ganbarg ’88 & Miranda ’02 Score Grammy Gold" Retrieved 22 August 2018
  2. ^ https://www.grammy.com/artists/pete-ganbarg/224731 [bare URL]
  3. ^ a b Kawashima, Dale (5 August 2014). "Special Interview with Pete Ganbarg, Executive Vice President of A&R at Atlantic Records". SongwriterUniverse. Retrieved 3 January 2011.
  4. ^ Ganbarg, Peter (24 November 2008). "Pete Ganbarg Named Atlantic Executive VP of A&R". Marketwire. Retrieved 3 January 2011.
  5. ^ Crouch, Tanja (30 April 2008). 100 Careers in the Music Business (Second ed.). Woodbury, N.Y: Barron's Educational Series. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-7641-3914-7. Retrieved 5 January 2011.
  6. ^ a b Cho, Regina (16 January 2018). "Atlantic Records Promotes Pete Ganbarg to President of A&R". Music Business Worldwide. Retrieved 2018-08-22.
  7. ^ "Pete Ganbarg Launches Pure Tone Records with Atlantic as He Steps Aside as President of A&R". Billboard.
  8. ^ "Interview: Atlantic/ATCO's Pete Ganbarg". 25 September 2020.
  9. ^ Variety Staff (16 January 2018). "Atlantic Records Names Pete Ganbarg President of A&R". Variety. Retrieved 2018-08-22.
  10. ^ "Home". rockschoolpodcast.com.
  11. ^ "Warner Music Group Announce Rock & Roll High School Podcast". 6 May 2021.
  12. ^ Kenney, Laurie (14 September 2015). "GANBARG'S GREATEST HITS". Wesleyan Magazine. Retrieved 2018-08-22.