Peter Calandra

Peter Calandra
Background information
Born	Brooklyn, New York
Origin	Northport, New York
Occupation(s)	composer, musician, conductor
Instrument(s)	piano, guitar
Website	petecalandramusic.com

Peter Calandra is a New York City-based composer and pianist. He is known for his work composing music for television and film as well as conducting and playing piano in Broadway and Off Broadway productions. The former includes the FIFA Men's and FIFA Women's World Cup themes for FOX Sports and, starting 2015, the themes for the Special Olympics World Games and Invictus Games for ESPN, in film, 13th Child (2002), Unknown Soldier (2004), Jellysmoke (2005), and BearCity 2: The Proposal (2012). He has also composed the music for the Kennedy Center Honors.

On Broadway, Calandra has played keyboard for Miss Saigon, Les Misérables, and The Phantom of the Opera. He performed in and served as conductor and musical director for the original New York City production of Little Shop of Horrors. In his career as a pianist, he has performed with musical artists and orchestras including Aretha Franklin, The New York Pops, jazz singer Dee Dee Bridgewater, Don Cherry, and actress/singer Annie Golden.

His own albums are Sunrise Over New York (2004), Late Night Christmas (2009), Satya (2011, with Bill Buchen & Stomu Takeishi), Ashokan Memories (2013), Inner Circle (2014), First Light (2015), The Road Home (2017), Piano Improvisations, Vol. 1, Carpe Noctem, Little Paws On The Walls (all 2018), Piano Improvisations, Vol. 2 (2019) and Ambient Tuesdays (2021). Calandra has a master's degree in Music Composition from Queens College, City University of New York^[1] and teaches Audio/MIDI Sequencing, Film Scoring and Music Composition at its Aaron Copland School of Music at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.^[2]