FULL BIOGRAPHY
Charles Peck (b.1988) is a composer whose work has been called “daring” (Philadelphia Inquirer), “wild and shimmering” (Broad Street Review), and “substantial, personal, genuine” (Roger Shapiro Fund for New Music). His music, spanning a range of chamber and large ensembles, has been performed by the Minnesota Orchestra, the Albany and Columbus Symphonies, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Alarm Will Sound, the JACK Quartet, Sandbox Percussion, and Contemporaneous.
Recently awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Peck has also received commissions from the Fromm Music Foundation, the Barlow Endowment, the McKnight Foundation, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Alarm Will Sound, and the Bergamot Quartet, and has been named a winner of composition competitions with the New York Youth Symphony, ASCAP, the Lake George Music Festival, Frame Dance, the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Symphony in C, the Tribeca New Music Festival, the Boston New Music Initiative, the Red Note New Music Festival, and the Foundation for Modern Music, among others. His music has been featured at a variety of venues and festivals, including Carnegie Hall, Chicago’s Symphony Center, the Aspen Music Festival, the Cabrillo Festival, the Mizzou International Composers Festival, the Minnesota Orchestra’s Composer Institute, the Beijing Modern Music Festival, Cultivate at Copland House, the American Music Festival, the Nief-Norf Festival, and the New Music Gathering.
Currently, Peck is working on a new piece for the Grossman Ensemble, commissioned by the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition, as well as a large percussion, strings, and video piece for Ji Hye Jung and the Bergamot Quartet. This year, Peck was also awarded the 2026 Kreitler Commission—a commission for a new piece for the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh, the Reno Chamber Orchestra, and the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, which will be premiered in 2027. Upcoming projects include a saxophone/percussion duo for Bent Frequency Duo and a cello/piano duo for the Cheng2 Duo.
Peck is also a member of the composition faculty at the University of Pittsburgh. He earned his doctorate at Cornell University where he earned the Otto R. Stahl Memorial Award in composition. He received his Master’s in Music from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. There, he was named the winner of the Composition Competition and was awarded the Scott Huston Award for composition. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Music Industry from Drexel University.
SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Charles Peck is a composer whose work has been called “daring” (Philadelphia Inquirer), “wild and shimmering” (Broad Street Review), and “substantial, personal, genuine” (Roger Shapiro Fund for New Music). His music, spanning a range of chamber and large ensembles, has been performed by the Minnesota Orchestra, the Albany and Columbus Symphonies, the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the JACK Quartet, Sandbox Percussion, and Contemporaneous. Recently awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Peck has also received commissions from the Fromm Music Foundation, the Barlow Endowment, the McKnight Foundation, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Alarm Will Sound, the Bergamot Quartet, and Ji Hye Jung and has been named a winner of composition competitions with the New York Youth Symphony, ASCAP, the Lake George Music Festival, Frame Dance, the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Symphony in C, the Tribeca New Music Festival, the Boston New Music Initiative, and the Foundation for Modern Music, among others. His music has been featured at a variety of venues and festivals, including Carnegie Hall, Chicago’s Symphony Center, the Aspen Music Festival, the Cabrillo Festival, the Mizzou International Composers Festival, the Minnesota Orchestra’s Composer Institute, the Beijing Modern Music Festival, Cultivate at Copland House, and the New Music Gathering. Peck is a member of the composition faculty at the University of Pittsburgh.