Russell Peck
Russell Peck was an American composer born in Detroit on January 25, 1945 to Thorland (Tom) and Margaret (Carlson) Peck. He died in Greensboro, North Carolina on March 1, 2009, at the age of 64. Life and career. Peck's early music education was grounded in Mozart and Beethoven, but also heavily influenced by the soul music emerging from Detroit during his formative years. Peck was the youngest of three children, and doted on by his two older sisters, Jean and Joyce. His father, Tom, sang in the Detroit Symphony Chorus in the late 1930s–early 1940s for  their Ford Symphony Hour national radio broadcasts, and later in his life was active with barbershop quartets. Tom was a proponent of Russell's interest in classical music, and encouraged him in his studies. From early on, Peck wanted to compose and began learning piano in fifth grade. Later, in high school, he played trombone in band and orchestra. The Motown sound inspired Peck to compose with melodic flow, engaging rhythm, and rich harmonies. The marriage of these two musical worlds is the backdrop of Peck's compositions, and is his trademark. Peck is a well-known American composer of  music for the symphony. His compositions have been included in thousands of performances by hundreds of orchestras in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa, including more than a dozen major orchestras such as the London Symphony, Montreal Symphony, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, as well as regional orchestras throughout the U.S. His most popular works include the percussion concerto, "The Glory and the Grandeur", "Signs of Life II" for string orchestra, and "The Thrill of the Orchestra", a narrated demonstration piece for orchestra. In 2000-2001 a consortium of 39 American orchestras commissioned Peck's Timpani  Concerto, Harmonic Rhythm. The premiere performances began with the Louisville Orchestra and proceeded with orchestras throughout the country. Education. Russell Peck was a cum laude graduate of the University of Michigan (1966), where he also received Master and Doctoral degrees in composition (1967 and 1972). His teachers included Clark Eastham, Leslie Bassett, Ross Lee Finney, Gunther Schuller, and George Rochberg. Russell Peck received the coveted Koussevitsky Prize in 1966 awarded through his association with the Tanglewood Music Center, two Ford Foundation Fellowships, grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, several states' arts councils, and ASCAP awards. Peck's artist  residencies include the Gaudeamus Contemporary Music Festival in the Netherlands and a two-year appointment as composer-in-residence for the city of Indianapolis and the Indianapolis Symphony. Peck served on the faculty of Northern Illinois University, Eastman School of Music, and the North Carolina School of the Arts. Beginning in the fall of 1974 through 1976 Peck was an assistant Professor of Music Theory at Northern Illinois University. In January 1977 he accepted an interim position teaching music composition at the Eastman School of Music. In the fall of 1977, he began teaching various aspects of the study of  music, including music history and music theory, at the North Carolina School of the Arts. In 1979 Peck chose not to continue teaching in order to pursue his increasing interest in the cause of ending world starvation. Peck's altruistic concerns dominated his time for several years until he re-emerged with the popular orchestra piece, "Signs of Life", in 1983.