The Symphony of Design: Peter Boyer's Musical Journey

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When you think of design, your mind might jump to interiors, architecture, or fashion – but what about the intricate design of a symphony? In this captivating episode, we're joined by Peter Boyer, whose orchestral compositions have received over 800 performances worldwide and graced venues from Ellis Island to the coronation of King Charles III.

Boyer reveals the fascinating journey from his teenage years as a Billy Joel enthusiast to becoming one of America's most performed composers. The turning point? A 17-year-old Boyer, inspired by Mozart and grieving his grandmother's passing, composed a Requiem Mass that would be performed by 300 musicians when he was just 20. This remarkable story illustrates how passion, determination, and mentorship can launch an extraordinary creative career.

The conversation takes us deep into the composer's studio, where Boyer explains the meticulous process of orchestral composition. Unlike the improvisation-heavy world of popular music, orchestral composition requires designing every note for dozens of instruments simultaneously. Boyer describes how he might spend an entire day crafting just 16 seconds of musical material – a testament to the patience and precision required in his art form. His explanation of how he transforms emotion and historical narrative into symphonic sound offers valuable insights for anyone engaged in creative work.

Boyer's most celebrated work, "Ellis Island: The Dream of America," shows how music can preserve and illuminate history. By weaving real immigrant stories with orchestral underscore, Boyer created a powerful meditation on the American experience that has resonated through over 300 performances. Looking forward, his upcoming "American Mosaic" project for America's 250th anniversary promises to combine symphonic sound with breathtaking visuals of the American landscape in a collaboration with renowned photographer Joe Sohm.

Whether you're a classical music enthusiast or simply curious about the creative process, this conversation illuminates how one designer of sound has built a remarkable career translating American stories into symphonic experiences that continue to move audiences worldwide.

Learn more at:
https://twinteriors.com/podcast/

https://scottwoolley.com

Episode Transcript

Voice Over (00:00):
This is iDesign Lab, a podcast where creativity and
curiosity meet style and design.
Curator of interiors,furnishings and lifestyles.
Hosted by Tiffany Woolley, aninterior designer and a style
enthusiast, along with herserial entrepreneur husband
Scott, idesign Lab is yourultimate design podcast where we
explore the rich and vibrantworld of design and its constant

(00:23):
evolution in style and trends.
Idesign Lab provides industryinsight, discussing the latest
trends, styles and everything inbetween to better help you
style your life, through advicefrom trendsetters, designers,
influencers, innovators,fabricators and manufacturers,
as well as personal stories thatinspire, motivate and excite.

(00:43):
And join us on this elevated,informative and lively journey
into the world of all thingsdesign.
Today, on the iDesign Labpodcast, we're joined by Peter
Boyer, one of the most performedAmerican orchestral composers
of his generation, with over 800performances worldwide.
Peter is a master at designingmusical experiences that blend

(01:04):
cinematic storytelling withsymphonic power.
From Ellis Island to thecoronation of King Charles III,
his work continues to inspireaudiences around the globe.

Tiffany Woolley (01:14):
Welcome to the iDesign Lab podcast.
Today we are going to have avery exciting conversation with
Peter Boyer, who has designed alife around music, more
importantly, the orchestra.

Scott Woolley (01:29):
Yes, the symphony and classical music.
And I have to say, before westart this podcast, I've had,
you know, throughout my career,the fortune to work with a lot
of great names, talented people,extremely talented artists, you
know, from McCartney toSpringsteen to Joel, to Bono to

(01:52):
Pavarotti.
I mean the names and lists goon and on.
But what I want to say today isis the gentleman who's with us,
peter Boyer.
For me he ranks on right up atthe top of the list with those
names.
I've always been so impressedwith his work, love what he does
, and it's just a fascinatingaspect of music that I think is

(02:14):
just wonderful, that I thinkmore people should enjoy and get
out and listen and hear.
I mean, it's just what you docomposing and conducting big
symphonies.
I always call it the big soundof music.
I love it.
The big sound of music and I'vehad the fortune to know you, for
I don't know 25 years or so andhave followed your career, and

(02:37):
I always enjoy seeing your postsand the places that you're
performing at.
I mean, one of the thingsthat's one of my goals this year
is I want to take Tiffany andmy kids to come see you in one
of your performances that you doand there's so many of them
that you have done, which wewant to dive into and jump into.

Peter Boyer (02:58):
I will be happy to provide you a list of some good
opportunities to do that.
That would be lovely.

Scott Woolley (03:02):
Yeah, so first question we really want to ask
is how did you get into being acomposer?
How did that start?

Peter Boyer (03:12):
Well, my personal story goes back essentially to
high school time, so I'm notanything like a child prodigy.
I didn't start music when I wasextremely young.
I didn't start composing when Iwas extremely young, but when I
was in high school a couple ofthings happened that, looking
back, set me on the path thatled to where I presently am.

(03:35):
So when I was 15 years old, Idecided that I wanted to play
the piano, and I was really aBilly Joel wannabe.
That was 1985.
I'm still a Billy Joel wannabein some key ways.
But so in 1985, when I was 15years old, I asked my

(03:56):
grandmother my father's mother,who really doted on me as the
oldest grandchild boldly askedif I could have a piano and
piano lessons.
And my grandmother compliedhappily.
And a few days later a movingvan showed up with a new upright
piano, which was my first piano.

(04:16):
I was 15 years old and I took tothat very quickly and at that
point there was really nomeaningful connection with
classical music.
It was pop music Billy Joel inparticular, and Elton John and
Dan Fogelberg and Journey, moreon the rock end, etc.
All of that and so I began.
I took to it very quickly andstarted.

(04:36):
I realized that I had abilityto start writing what were then
basically songs or very simpleinstrumental compositions early
on, I mean right off the bat,and I really was immersed in
that many hours a day.
But a very important thinghappened in this high school
time.
So I was in Smithfield, RhodeIsland.
That's where I grew up On theEast Coast.

(04:56):
East Coast and the Northeast.
And so I was at Smithfield HighSchool and was one of a very
small group of students who hadan opportunity to take up a
music history course with agreat teacher, Robert Cleasby,
who was my high school choral.
Up toward the present Halfwaythrough that year, two things
happened that coalesced andreally set me off on a path.

(05:31):
One was that my grandmotherdied.
She had set me up with all ofthis when I was 15.
So at this point I was justturning 17.
So it had been about two yearsworth of lessons and pop songs
and beginning to accompany thechoir and all of that, and at
the same time we came to Mozart.
We came to Mozart in the courseof this music history class,

(05:54):
and this was shortly after thegreat movie Amadeus had released
.
And although now I understandhow fictionalized that portrayal
, of Mozart was when I was ateenager?
of course I didn't.
I just took it at face valuethat this was Mozart and this
was his story.
I didn't realize that this wasa Hollywoodized version, but I

(06:14):
was completely fascinated bythis.
And, of course, mozart's lastunfinished work was a requiem,
and this is dramatized in themovie Amadeus.
He didn't finish it, he diedhimself while finish it.
He died himself while writingit.
That's a long story in and ofitself, but my grandmother died.
I saw the movie Amadeus, Ilearned about Mozart and I said
I want to write a requiem massin honor of my grandmother who

(06:38):
just died, and I was justturning 17 years old and in fact
I did this, and that's a longstory.
But the end of the story is thatthree years later, when I was
just turning 20, and I was ajunior at Rhode Island College,
which is where I did myundergraduate work I had skipped
my senior year of high schooland went to college a year early
.

(06:58):
And three years later, just atthe age of turning 20, I
conducted about 300 performersin the premiere of my Requiem
Mass.
So that was four vocal soloistsand a huge choir and a big
orchestra.
And I'd never done any of thisbefore and I was very fortunate
to receive a lot of mentorshipand help, financially and

(07:21):
morally and emotionally, from agroup of people who believed in
this very ambitious young fellow, and so there was so much
attention given to this premiere.
I got myself into USA Todaynewspaper, which is another
interesting story, so I hadnational coverage of this.
The local television stationsand local radio station and
local newspapers all wrote aboutit.

(07:42):
So on the day that it happened,which was a Sunday afternoon in
March of 1990, the place wasliterally sold out, with
standing room.
Only Over a thousand peoplecame to see the premiere of my
Requiem at age 20, with 300people on the stage.
So this was both a musicalexperience but also an
experience in terms of being akind of entrepreneur and

(08:05):
learning leadership requiredleadership, to you know, to
gather all of this together toget adults I was a young adult,
to you know invest in thisresources in kind and money to
make all this happen.
And so it was a huge success anda very important and very
obviously heady young moment fora young composer at age 20 to

(08:28):
do this, and so at that point Iguess you could say I had become
a young composer, although it'simportant to note that I hadn't
had any formal compositionlessons at that point.
I did have mentorship, a mannamed Stephen Martorella, who
was very important in myundergrad experience.
He was and is a pianist andorganist and harpsichord player

(08:51):
and somebody who had greatinterest in me as a young man
and gave me a lot of resources.
But he wasn't a composer.
So I didn't actually have anyformal composition lessons, in
fact for another year and a halfuntil I went to graduate school
at the Hart School of Music atthe University of Hartford.
So I did this enormous project,plus another couple big
projects in the next year, mysenior year all basically with a

(09:12):
lot of self-motivation, andthen many things came after that
, but that was kind of a veryunusual way to start a life as a
classical composer.

Scott Woolley (09:20):
So that was a pivotal aspect of your life,
that happening, and youbasically, at that point I'm
guessing On your way, really Onyour way, but at that point I'm
guessing that piano was theinstrument that you were playing
, but from what I'munderstanding, you also wrote
for an entire symphony for manyother instruments, is that?

Peter Boyer (09:39):
correct.
That's correct, and you know.
And that of course is a bigpart of what classical composers
or orchestral composers do.
And you know, essentially youcould divide the work into the
big category of composition andorchestration, and these things
of course are very much related.
But I learned initially thecraft of orchestration simply by

(10:01):
studying scores.
I went to the Providence PublicLibrary and took out scores of
Requiem, so I took out the scoreof the Mozart Requiem and the
score of the Verdi Requiem, etcetera, and listened to
recordings.

Tiffany Woolley (10:13):
Explain the score really quickly though.

Peter Boyer (10:15):
So just the printed music, the sheet music of the
entire piece.
And so you know.
If you think of piano musicwith simply two lines of music
for left and right hand, whenyou're looking at a full
orchestral score or orchestraand chorus, then maybe you've
got 30 or 35 lines of music onthe page indicating what every
instrument is doing.
So every instrument is listedon that page.

(10:42):
That's correct.
And for those who don't know,orchestral scores are organized
by instrument families.
So you have your woodwindinstruments.
You know flute oboe, clarinet,bassoon in a family on the top,
and you have your brassinstruments, horns and trumpets
and trombones and tuba, in afamily below that, and then you
have your percussion instrumentstimpani and snare, drum and
bass, drum, et cetera, and thenyou have harp and keyboard.

(11:05):
If that's there, if there's achorus, then the chorus is there
sopranos, altos, tenor, basses,and then finally the strings,
really the great body of theorchestra violins, violas, celli
, bass.
So indeed, you know, as one, asa teenager, as I began to look
at this, it's like opening aworld and hearing inside another
composer's mind of the notesthat they put down perhaps

(11:27):
hundreds of years ago, thatstill speak to us today through
this miraculous thing of musicnotation.
And I was totally fascinated bythis and I'm still fascinated
by it, and this is what I spendmuch of my time doing is trying
to create the same kind of thingin a contemporary guise.
But you're starting all thatwith the piano, correct?
That's correct.
That's correct is trying tocreate the same kind of thing in
a contemporary guise, butyou're starting all that with
the piano, correct?

(11:48):
That's correct.
That's correct and it'simportant to say.
You know, I'm often asked thisthe only instrument that I play
is piano, is keyboard.
Now we're in a time in which wehave sample libraries so that I
have at my disposal all ofthose sounds that I just
mentioned the woodwinds, thebrass, the percussion, keyboard,
harp, strings, choir all ofthis I can call it's really

(12:12):
being able to understand.
If I write these notes for aviolin, what's that going to
sound like when a violin sectionplays that?

(12:32):
And that kind of thing isreally what orchestral
composition is about.
It's wonderful to have the toolsthat we have now, but I didn't
have them when I was a teenageror for my early pieces.
I just wrote it at the pianoand then began to understand,
and I really couldn't hear ituntil I stood in front of an
orchestra for the first time,and, of course, as a young
person.
When you're doing that, it's anunbelievable learning

(12:53):
experience, because every singlesecond that you're hearing what
you wrote, you're getting thisincredible human feedback and
you're understanding.
Ah, this is what happens when Iwrite this down.
Now, of course, I'm quiteaccustomed to this.

Scott Woolley (13:10):
I can hear it in my head, but when I was a
teenager, it was a bigger leapof the imagination to do this,
and I guess there's a lot ofimagination and kind of, you're
playing it on the piano, butthen, kind of thinking, you know
in your head what this soundslike and, like you just said,
today you can take those notes,put them into a system or
program and it's going to playout the violin or whatever it is
.

Tiffany Woolley (13:29):
It really is designing music.

Scott Woolley (13:31):
So back in the 90s when you started this.
That's right.
That's a lot of visualizationin the head, hoping that it's
going to sound.

Tiffany Woolley (13:41):
It's funny because, even as you're
explaining that to us, we havethree daughters who are very
into music right now.

Scott Woolley (13:47):
Well, they have a band.

Tiffany Woolley (13:48):
It's a big part of our life.

Scott Woolley (13:49):
Yeah.

Tiffany Woolley (13:50):
And they just started in high school and you
know their focus was.
One of them is the guitar.
One plays piano, one plays drum, but the daughter who is doing
guitar, they put her in guitar.
She was all excited.
She shows up for her first dayof school and it's classical
guitar and she's totally thrownfor a loop.
She like totally, you know, waslike I don't know if that's for

(14:12):
me, I don't know if I shouldpursue this, I don't know if I
should stay with this.
We called our music instructor,who we trust so much, and you
know he was like no, stick withit.
It's the, you know, it reallyis the basis of what music.
It's the beginning.

Scott Woolley (14:27):
He came over the house and had a conversation
with her Classical guitar.
You need to learn, you need toalmost master that.

Peter Boyer (14:37):
You're building a foundation for further
understanding and for furthertechnical development.
For sure, absolutely, and alsoat that age.
Our minds are so open and sofertile at that time and you
know, it's just like a greattime to learn language as well.
So you know, I think duringthose teenage years, exposing
oneself to all of these kinds ofmusical early experiences can

(15:00):
really pay rewards down the road.
They certainly did for meAbsolutely.

Tiffany Woolley (15:04):
Without a doubt .

Scott Woolley (15:05):
And a lot of it seems to have been lost in the
schools.
The schools don't like.
When I went to high school andto junior high, no, it was not
involved at all in my generation.
When I did music was a bigthing.
Today it's almost non-existent.

Peter Boyer (15:21):
Yeah, it's very, very unfortunate because you
know I'm not a sort of you knowprofessional advocate for music
education, but I certainly knowthat study after study has shown
that the study of musicincreases ability,
intellectually and emotionally,all over, throughout the whole

(15:47):
experience, from earliest upthrough high school and through
college, etc.
So you know, it's a veryimportant part of our learning.

Scott Woolley (15:54):
So you're 21, 22 years old, you've composed and
you've done these one or twoamazing events.
How?

Tiffany Woolley (16:07):
do you move forward?

Scott Woolley (16:07):
or how did you move forward into where it
became a career.
Well, let me ask you a questionBefore you did that, did you
have visions of some othercareer?

Peter Boyer (16:17):
that you were thinking of.
So I mean in my very youngestdays I actually thought, I mean
before music came into my lifeand really overtook my life.
When I was very young, Iactually thought, I mean before
music came into my life andreally overtook my life.
When I was very young, Iactually thought maybe I would
be a comic book writer andillustrator.
So I mean I have to say when Iwas creative.
Yeah, your mind was creativeright, I mean, I certainly I

(16:38):
never imagined myself in, youknow, housing, construction or
something.
So comic books, you know, andillustration, all of that.
I thought maybe that would bethe way to go, and I did that up
until music took over, when Iwas 15, then, you know, I just
immersed myself in it sostrongly that I stopped drawing,
alas, and you know, my work wasputting notes down on a page.

(17:01):
And of course, at that point Iwas, I was literally physically
putting the notes on a page witha calligraphy pen at the very
beginning, the Requiem Masswhich I wrote by hand over many,
many months when I was, youknow, basically 18, 19 years old
.
I mean, I still, of course,have the original manuscript,
such a tribute to yourgrandmother.

(17:22):
Yeah, so you know that I meanthose that was really done with
with a calligraphy pen to do thenote notation via a keyboard, a
MIDI keyboard or an electronickeyboard, and then to type in

(17:49):
text, etc.
That of course it was in itsearly stages, in the early 90s,
but I actually started in.
1990 was the first time I beganto use that kind of software,
and so now, you know, yearslater, I basically never
actually write on paper anymore,even though there's something
very tactile and wonderful aboutit, because it's so much easier

(18:09):
to simply play the notes.
In to music notation software Iuse a software called Sibelius,
which is wonderful, and itallows me to then, as we
mentioned earlier, to send themusical lines to whatever
instruments I need to hear andto edit as necessary, to take a
sketch and to expand.
So the software has come a long, long way since the early 90s

(18:32):
and of course so have computersthemselves.

Tiffany Woolley (18:34):
So do you believe that, like formal
training was what was thecatalyst, or was it the passion
that got you to this career?

Peter Boyer (18:46):
So it certainly was both of those things and, to
answer Scott's earlier question,after having done the Requiem
and also a couple other bigprojects that I won't get into
during my because that was onlymy junior year, that I was.
My junior year of college wasthe Requiem and I did more in my
senior year, but I knew that Iwanted to go on to graduate
school.
I knew that my learning processwas still early and there was a

(19:08):
lot to learn.
So, uh, you know to to sort ofvery quickly go through the next
steps.
Uh, I went to graduate schoolat the Hart school of music at
the university of Hartford fortwo more years after graduate
school.
So I did a master's degree anda doctoral degree, what's called
a DMA, a doctor of musical arts.
So, I actually had received mydoctoral degree by the time I

(19:29):
was 25.
So I was kind of young fellowto have a.
DMA and that was in Hartford.
And then I also studiedprivately with a very, very
renowned classical composernamed John Corleano.
He accepted me as a privatestudent and I studied with him
for one summer in New York andthen moved to Los Angeles.
So I've been there since I was25 years old and did one more

(19:53):
year, after having done mydoctorate, of studying film and
TV music in a program at USC nowcalled the USC Thornton School
of Music.
So by the time I was 26, I hada doctorate.
I had done this one more yearof film and TV focused study,
which was really much morecommercial focused versus
classical.
And those things have informedyou know the path that I've
taken.

(20:14):
I was approached about ateaching position and took that
teaching position at theClaremont Graduate University,
at the Claremont Colleges, butreally started a lot of hustling
to get my music out into theworld and began to approach
orchestras and conductors withmy music.
And also at that time when oneis in one's 20s there are

(20:34):
competitions that one can enterand I did enter some
competitions and I did win thosecompetitions.
So there's something inparticular called the BMI used
to be called the BMI StudentComposer Award.
Now it's just called the BMIComposer Award, and it's a very

(20:54):
competitive program that hasmany hundreds of entries per
year and picks a handful ofwinners, and so I won that a
couple of times when I was in myyoung 20s and that was the
first sort of national exposureto the classical community.
But of course you've got tohustle and get your music out
there, and even to this day I'mstill promoting my music on a
regular basis.
But I'm happy to say that nowmany more orchestras and

(21:15):
conductors are simply coming tome, which is a great thing that
I wish had happened in mymid-20s.
But it was a long time ofbuilding this up, and in the
early period if I could get evenone or two or three orchestral
performances, I mean it was ahuge deal, it was a thrill.
And now you know, happily I'mat a point where things have
really exploded in the lastcouple of years, as Scott had

(21:37):
alluded to earlier, and in lastyear last calendar year 2024,
amazingly there were 134performances of my music that's
amazing calendar year.
So you know, things have reallygrown.
That means every, you know,basically every three days what
do you attribute to that growth?

Tiffany Woolley (21:54):
I?
Mean is that just the internetsocial media, you know?

Scott Woolley (21:58):
well, I think it's also a lot of what he's
composed is just your catalog isso bad all of those things are
factors.

Peter Boyer (22:05):
I mean, I think, more than anything else, it's
been a continuous and relentlesswork ethic over these years,
doing broadly two things, one ofwhich is to compose what is now
a relatively large body ofmusic.
I mean, don't get me wrong,it's not like Mozart, it's not
like Bach or Telemann, you know,with hundreds and hundreds of
compositions.
It's not like Mozart, it's notlike Bach or Telemann, you know,

(22:26):
with hundreds and hundreds ofcompositions.
But I mean, I have a catalog ofabout 30 works, and some of
those works, in particular EllisIsland, the Dream of America
have become very well known andhave been, you know, on national
television, on PBS, performedmany, many times by many
orchestras.
But also other works of mine,you know, have had many
performances and I'm constantlywriting new music because there

(22:47):
are commissions and I'm in avery fortunate place to have had
a series of commissions overthe years that has been pretty
continuous.
So the catalog continues to growand I continue to promote it.
But also there's a kind ofblossoming effect.
You know, for example, when Ifirst started and was promoting
my music to orchestras, ofcourse I would send my music to

(23:07):
the most famous conductors andalmost never get any reply.
But I got replies from youngerconductors who were earlier on.
They were climbing the ladder,so to speak, and they took an
interest in my music.
Well now, years have gone by,those younger conductors have
risen within the field and sothey now have music

(23:27):
directorships, et cetera, andyou know, so there's a kind of
ripple in the pond effect thathas grown out over the years.
And it's been a long, longprocess.
But yeah, I mean, to have 134performances in a single year is
such a wonderful thing and tojust be able to.
I think I'm not the type toever just sit back and say, okay
, I'm done.
I don't think I could do that.

(23:49):
But to know that this body ofmusic is growing and that the
interest in the music is growingon a regular basis is very
gratifying, of course.

Scott Woolley (23:58):
But besides writing, you're also conducting
correct, yes.
So you're actually going tolive performances around the
planet.

Peter Boyer (24:08):
So it's interesting that I mean, and my training
was both as a composer and aconductor, although more as a
composer for sure, and so I do arelatively modest amount of
conducting compared to composing.
But what has what tends tohappen is if I'm invited to do
something as a conductor it'susually because my music is

(24:29):
involved.
So there have been occasionswhere I'm asked to conduct, for
example, ellis Island, the Dreamof America, because the
orchestra doesn't have a musicdirector.
They're doing a search and theywant to do the piece and so I
brought on to do that, etc.
And my music is kind of fallsin a mainstream, if you will,
american symphonic composition.

(24:50):
So my music is often programmedalongside the music of Aaron
Copland, of Leonard Bernstein,of John Williams, and so
sometimes I've been asked toconduct all American programs
where I get to conduct thesegreat older American composers
whose music I so admire, andalso to do mine.
And the other part of thatanswer, scott, is that the

(25:13):
recordings that I've done inLondon with the London Symphony
Orchestra and the LondonPhilharmonic Orchestra,
philharmonia Orchestra, thosehave been very, very important
to my career and also fall inthat kind of entrepreneurial
category of making thoserecordings happen Extremely
prestigious.
And so I have conducted, youknow, all of those recordings.

(25:33):
I've made five recordings inLondon over the years and am now
planning a sixth, another, andso that's also, of course, an
incredible experience, you know,to go into Studio One at Abbey
Road, or Air.
Studios, lynghurst Hall, and toconduct these amazing
London-based orchestras who areastonishing in their sight

(25:55):
reading ability and themusicianship.
So those recordings have becomea very important part of my
career because they've beenembraced by classical radio,
especially in America, butreally all over the world.
And now, tiffany, you mentionedthe Internet and social media.
It's really remarkable howsocial media has allowed us, in
my case as a composer, to makeconnections so easily across the

(26:18):
globe and to hear fromconductors in Europe and in Asia
who are interested, who'veheard the music somewhere.
Then, of course, that againallows this idea of the ripple
in the pond to spread not justaround the United States but
internationally.

Scott Woolley (26:38):
So all of those things, I think, have
contributed to a growth inrecent years.
So what is the process when youdecide you want to compose
something new?
A new orchestra.
Are you just sitting down atthe piano?
Creating that Does?

Tiffany Woolley (26:49):
it start with a story.
Yeah, vision.

Scott Woolley (26:54):
Like Ellis Island is something we want to talk
about.
That's an amazing project.
When you explain that, you canunderstand how that came about,
but when you're doing somethingnew, is it?
Just you're sitting down andgoing.

Peter Boyer (27:10):
Okay, let's start here or we go at the beginning.
So I mean broadly speaking.
So as a professional composer,I'm always thinking very
carefully about my task at hand,what the commission is.
And so when we use the word,you know, commission in this
sense a commission is simply oneis being hired to write a piece

(27:30):
of music.
So I'm commissioned by,generally, orchestras, but
sometimes they might be chorusesor orchestras with chorus, but
broadly speaking, let's say it'sorchestra.
So there's going to be aspecific occasion for which I'm
being commissioned.
We're going to write this piecefor this occasion.
There's going to be a specificlength.
This piece for this occasion,uh, there's going to be a

(27:52):
specific length.
This is going to be, let's say,a short piece of five or six
minutes, or a longer piece, uh,you know, concerto of 18 minutes
.
Or, in the case of ellis island, the dream of america, that's a
very big piece, that's 45minutes, with actors and
orchestra.
So I'm always first of alllooking at the specific context.
What is it that I have to do ifI have to write a 20-minute
piece?
Is that piece going to be inmultiple movements or sections?

(28:13):
What is the theme that's goingto drive all of this?
And then we should also say, isthere text or not?
Because purely instrumentalmusic, just the orchestra, where
there's no singers, there's nospoken word, it's just purely
music then that's going to be adifferent kind of process than
something that has either sungmusic by a solo singer or by a

(28:34):
choir, or spoken word in thecase of Ellis Island spoken by
actors.
Those are going to be differentthings from each other.
But you know, I think, scott,what you're asking is you know,
how does, how does one actuallystart?
And there comes a point where,ok, all of the planning and
thinking has begun, but I haveto actually sit down and get
started.
And you know, just thinking ofthat, that blank canvas, so to

(28:55):
speak, when you're using musicnotation software, it's the same
idea, it's a blank screen.
And so you know, I have a, Ihave a template, and that
template you can think of aslike empty sheet music, if you
will.
That is across my screen fromtop to bottom, and you know,
stretching out as far as I needit to be.
And so I've got a template thathas empty musical staves for

(29:16):
all those instruments we talkedabout earlier, the woodwinds,
the brass, the percussion, harp,strings, choir, if we need it.
And so you know, I've got atsome point, I've got to open up
a new project and I've got tosay, okay, now it's time to
start.
And this is where it's verydifficult to describe, because
this is something about being acomposer and having a certain
ability.
So if I am thinking I need atheme that represents nobility,

(29:43):
or I need a musical theme that'sgoing to suggest energy and
optimism, then I have to sitdown and my hands are going to
go to the keyboard and I'm goingto start creating musical
material.
And it's very difficult toexplain exactly how that begins.
But those things that I justsuggested, they're going to
bring out in me something that'sgoing to be a kind of musical
response.
So I'll just give you oneexample, just so it's kind of

(30:06):
concrete.

Scott Woolley (30:06):
So it's a feeling inside that's kind of concrete.

Peter Boyer (30:09):
So it's a feeling inside, yes, and it has to
manifest itself by playing thekeyboard and coming up with
material that I have a responseto that I say, ah, this is good,
or this is not so good.
Or, of course, this sounds likesomething that I've heard
before, because we don't want itto sound like Billy Joel or
John Williams, john Williams orAaron Copland.

(30:32):
So you know, a big part of itis okay.
How do I create something newthat lives within a tradition
that comes from a place that Iadmire, but that is not merely
an imitation of this other thing?
And it's very difficult toexplain how that happens.
But there is a kind of trialand error process.
And going back to that idea ofthe blank canvas or the blank
staves that are in front of me,at some point I've just got to
put some stuff down.
And going back to that idea ofthe blank canvas or the blank
staves that are in front of me,at some point I've just got to

(30:52):
put some stuff down and so playsomething, get something down
and either keep replaying itmyself with my hands on the
keyboard or enter the notes andthen have the software play it
back to me and I begin to makedecisions about this.
Okay, this is good.
Now let's see what we can do toexpand this.
And music is organizedbasically in bars, right?

(31:14):
So a bar could be, let's say,just four seconds long.
So I could write four bars ofmusic and that could be, let's
say, 16 seconds of musicalmaterial.
Well, I might even spend awhole day to get the ideal 16
seconds of musical material.
But now I've created.
I've created something that canbe developed, that something

(31:34):
that can be grown, somethingthat has potential to develop in
a direction, and this is whatcomposers do.
And, of course, you know all ofthat schooling that we talked
about and going to school formany years and saying, okay,
let's learn counterpoint, let'slearn how musical lines behave
against each other, let's learnabout harmony and how chords are

(31:55):
developed.
Let's learn about voice leadingand how to make a line move
forward.
Let's learn about balance.
You know, going to your wholeconcept of design and how we
balance in an orchestration, thewoodwinds against the brass,
against the percussion, againstthe strings, so that we have
something where a melody can beheard over a bed of harmony
below it.
All of these things are thekinds of things that composers

(32:16):
go to school for, and spend many, many years trying to hone that
craft.
But the hardest thing really andit's almost impossible to
describe is what some peoplewould call a voice, a composer's
voice.

Tiffany Woolley (32:28):
I was just going to ask you your
inspiration which is probablythat voice.

Peter Boyer (32:35):
Yes, all of those things I mean.
If you think, for example,about Beethoven, if we go back
to Beethoven, one of the mostfamous composers, I mean
Beethoven had a distinct voiceand personality and sound, but
it evolved very much over thecourse of his career.
So early Beethoven and middleBeethoven and late Beethoven
sound quite different.
But he didn't start in a vacuum.
He existed in a time period inwhich he had great composers who

(32:57):
were alive.
When he was young, he had, youknow, he had Mozart, he had
Haydn and he had others.
So he built on thosefoundations and then, ultimately
, his own personality becamemanifest and he became Beethoven
.
So, all of us who are composers,you know we all do this.
So when I sit down as Idescribed and I'm trying to do

(33:19):
this from nothing it's neverreally from nothing, because I
have all in my head All of themusic that I have loved in my
whole life is all part of thatprocess and then I have my own
kind of whatever you want tocall it personality or voice or
style, and that ultimatelydictates the notes that I say ah
, I like these notes better thanI like these notes.

(33:39):
And, bar by bar, eventually webuild this up and when you can
think about okay, what does ittake when at the end of the
process, I have to have a 45minute piece and it has to have
notes for an entire orchestra ororchestra plus actors or choir,
I've got to have somethingthat's going to have literally
thousands of bars of music atthe end, that is idiomatic, that

(34:00):
all of these people can playand do in such a way that it is
gratifying to them as players oras singers, and that we create
this final result.
So it sounds almost insane,right.

Tiffany Woolley (34:10):
It does.
There's so many layers to it.

Peter Boyer (34:14):
But you must begin somewhere and that somewhere,
you know, is just putting downthat initial material.
And you know, as you canprobably tell just by hearing me
talk about this, I'm verypassionate about it and also I'm
very willing to work at it andwork at it, and work at it, and
so you know any of these piecesthat we're talking about I mean,
ellis Island took a year.
It took a year to create, andyou know.

(34:37):
But here's a piece that thatpremiered in 2002.
We're in 2025 and it's moreperformed than ever.
So that year that I spentbetween 2001 and 2002 writing it
was a wonderful investment of ayear, because now we've got
something that really has a life, that has gone on and I never
get bored with it.

(34:57):
I never get tired.
I never say okay, I'm done withwriting music, so I always want
to keep going.
And also there's also alearning process.
I'm continually, hopefully I'ma better orchestrator now than I
was 20 years ago.

Scott Woolley (35:08):
So when you're writing a new piece and, like
you just spoke about, going likeAbbey road, you know studio and
now you're going to record it,you've got a full orchestra in
that.
In that recording studio, iseverything written, is
everything set for everyinstrument before you walk in,
or are you, as you're listeningto it, adding or changing or?

Peter Boyer (35:33):
in general, in general, everything, everything
down to the smallest detail, hasbeen written.
So, um, there is there's, uh,in that kind of a context, there
is not any kind ofimprovisation that's taking
place.
Um, now, if you had a certainkind of a piece, uh, which is
not really the kind of piecethat I'm talking about, but if
you had a certain kind of apiece and you had a soloist who

(35:53):
had an ability to improvise,then there might be an
improvisational aspect where theorchestra was written out
totally, but maybe you had someempty bars for the soloist, that
they had to improvise in acertain style.
But no, that's not what I do,and so you know, as an
interesting example, we hadtalked a little bit before today
about this piece calledRhapsody in Red, white and Blue,

(36:14):
which I wrote for the pianist,jeffrey Beagle.
A long story, but a commissionto honor and celebrate the
centennial of George Gershwin'sRhapsody in Blue, which had its
centennial just over a year ago.
In February of 2024 was thecentennial, and this was an
incredibly difficult commission,because Jeffrey wanted a piece

(36:36):
that would be able to stand onits own, alongside, and even be
performed on the same concerts,alongside, george Gershwin's
Rhapsody in Blue, which, ofcourse, is one of the most
famous, most beloved and uniquepieces of American music.
It's a very, very challengingcommission.
I actually said no at first andhe kept pursuing me.
He said no, you're the rightcomposer to do this.

(36:56):
So, going to your question,scott, there are sections in
that piece where the solopianist, jeffrey who's a
miraculous pianist, reallywonderful pianist there are
sections where it sounds as ifhe is improvising some really
cool stuff in a bluesy style.
It sounds that way, but it'snot.
It has been notated absolutelyprecisely.

(37:18):
So I have very carefullyfigured out exactly what to put
down for Jeffrey so that he infact sounds like he's
improvising, but he's playingprecisely what I notated.
And then, of course, when theorchestra comes in behind him,
then that's been notated as well.

Scott Woolley (37:32):
Where was that piece first played?

Peter Boyer (37:35):
It was interestingly, it was first
played in Utah, in Park City,utah.
As it happened was the UtahSymphony June 30th of 2023.
, so less than two years ago.
It just the stars aligned insuch a way that the Utah
Symphony had the premiere.
It was opening night of theUtah Symphony's Summer Music

(37:55):
Festival and it was really agorgeous setting up in the
mountains, outdoors big screenso the audience could see.

Tiffany Woolley (38:02):
You know from far about 3000 people like that
outside.

Peter Boyer (38:06):
Yes, very, very, very beautiful, very memorable,
very scenic and literally we'rejust like among the mountains.
And for a piece that has amiddle section which really kind
of evokes the big, wide, openspaces of America and the beauty
of America in its middlesection at least that's what I
tried to do it was really kindof wonderfully poetic that

(38:27):
that's where we were for thepremiere and I mentioned that to
the audience and you reallycould feel it.
It was a stunning experience,and especially that you're not
in a concert hall, but you'reactually outside and people are
on blankets.
And then when it was over therewas an immediate standing
ovation for these 3,000 people.
I'm standing on the stage sortof looking out at the crowd and

(38:49):
seeing all these people rise andstand because they were so
moved by the experience andJeffrey and I were just.
It had been like three years upto that moment and so we soaked
that moment in so dramaticallyand emotionally and, I have to
say, largely because ofJeffrey's tenacity.
His idea with that project wasthat he would play it in all 50

(39:12):
states with orchestras in all 50states.
And I thought that was an almostimpossible task, but he is in
fact in the process of doingthat and so far he's already
played the piece as of this weekin 33 out of the 50 states.

Tiffany Woolley (39:30):
That's amazing, amazing.

Scott Woolley (39:31):
Has it been played in Washington DC at the
Gershwin Theater in the what'sit?
Library of Congress?
Library of Congress yeah.

Peter Boyer (39:38):
It would be too big .
It would be too big to fit inthe Library of Congress because
it would need a large orchestra.
But no, not yet Washington DC.
But, as I say, 33 states thusfar and actually 47 performances
, because some of them areplayed at two or three times.
And we do in fact havecommitments from orchestras in
all the remaining states and infact there are a few states

(40:00):
where, including Florida, wherethere's more than one orchestra
that has either has alreadyplayed it or will play it.
So we have 56 orchestrasinvolved and you know that's as
far as Jeffrey and I both know.
That's unprecedented in termsof a piece for a soloist and
orchestra.

Tiffany Woolley (40:20):
I know what a great goal.

Scott Woolley (40:22):
It's a great goal .
Have you done anythingpertaining to like the Aspen
Music Festival?
Tiffany and I have enjoyed that.
We actually, when you talkabout the blankets and so forth,
we prefer to be outside thebuilding listening.

Peter Boyer (40:38):
Sure, it's a wonderful experience.
So actually it's been pitchedthere and I don't yet know if
that will happen in Aspen.
There is a small orchestra inColorado that has agreed to
perform it that hasn't performedit yet, and so some outdoors
mostly they've been in concerthalls and there are still about
a dozen of those orchestras thathave agreed to perform it that
haven't scheduled it yet.

(40:58):
So, as I said, the premiere wasJune 30th of 2023, less than
two years ago.
There are performancesscheduled for the next year and
probably it's going to be, Iwould say, early 2027, by the
time Jeffrey gets to that lasthandful of states.
So I think that by the timehe's done, it will have been
almost a four year process toplay it in every one of the 50

(41:21):
states, but he actually is goingto pull off that goal and I
have to tip my hat to him.

Tiffany Woolley (41:26):
That's amazing, and does it feel different at
each state, like when eachorchestra is playing the works,
do they?
I mean, is there somethingdifferent you take away each
time you hear it, or?

Peter Boyer (41:39):
There are certain similarities and then
differences, just in the youknow the personality and the
performance level of eachorchestra and I have to say the
acoustic of the place right.
Yes, yes, for sure, andobviously indoors versus
outdoors.

Tiffany Woolley (41:52):
Outdoors yeah.

Peter Boyer (41:54):
One thing that was very sweet and very nice was so
just about five, six weeks ago.
Of course, I'm from RhodeIsland, as we said, and so the
Rhode Island Philharmonic, whichyou might say is my hometown
orchestra, the Rhode IslandPhilharmonic played it with
Jeffrey as the soloist, aconductor named Aram Demerjian
conducting it, and that was thefirst professional orchestra I

(42:18):
ever heard when I was a teenager.
So it was a really very kind ofsweet moment to go back to
Rhode Island, to be invited togo back and to talk to the
audience right before the piecewas played and to say, hey, I'm
from here, I was born two milesfrom here.

Scott Woolley (42:32):
And I went to.

Peter Boyer (42:33):
Smithfield High School and I went to Rhode
Island College and you know, tokind of get the shout outs from
the Smithfield people and theRhode Island College people and
then to have this magnificentpianist and this excellent
orchestra play it in my hometown, the city of my birth, that
felt very special in a way.
I think that's only possiblebecause of that, that local
connection.

Tiffany Woolley (42:55):
So let's go back one minute to the Ellis,
ellis Island, the Dream ofAmerica has had over 300
performances.
Where was that commission?
Or where did the inspiration?

Scott Woolley (43:10):
originate from yes.
Yes.
So, and before you say anything, I just want to say anyone
who's listening and watching tothis podcast when you're done,
you should go to I mean iTunes,it's there, and you know and
download it and listen to it,because it's an incredible piece
.

Peter Boyer (43:30):
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
And yes, you're right, tiffany.
I mean it just had its 300thperformance in Pittsburgh in
January, which is reallyremarkable for a relatively
recent American can say that.
And of that handful, ellisIsland is unique in that it's

(43:56):
much longer, it's a 45-minutepiece and it's for actors and
orchestra and projected images.
So the idea for Ellis Island,one of the best ideas I guess
I've ever had as a composer,actually hit me, I think, as far
back as 1999.
I was contemplating the poemthe New Colossus, which is the

(44:19):
poem that is on the pedestal ofthe Statue of Liberty in New
York Harbor.
And from which the lines?
I think all of us who havegrown up in the United States
and have been students at somepoint we're familiar at least
with the closing lines of thisEmma Lazarus poem.
You know, give me your tired,your poor, your huddled masses
yearning to breathe free thewretched refuse of your teeming

(44:40):
shore.
Send these the homeless tempesttossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside thegolden door.
And so those lines.
I don't know how old I was whenI first heard them, and so you
know, let's say I was 10 yearsold or something like that.
But so in my late 20s I wascontemplating this and
contemplating early 20th centuryimmigration and I thought what
a, what a fascinating idea thiswould be for a piece to have

(45:03):
stories from Ellis Island and toput them with orchestra.
And I thought this is such agood idea.
Surely somebody must have donethis.
And I did some research and, asfar as I could determine, no
one had done that.
And I thought, wow, I'm kind ofsurprised no one's done this.
There had been some composerswho had set to music sung some
of those stories as songs to besung.

(45:25):
But no one had done the ideathat I had, which was to take
these stories, create a scriptand then put that with orchestra
.
So I began pursuing acommission so that I could
essentially be paid to writethis piece and not just do it
entirely on my own.
And ultimately the commissioncame from the Bushnell Center

(45:47):
for the Performing Arts, whichis a major performing arts
institution in Hartford,connecticut, where I had gone to
graduate school.
I was already living inCalifornia, so this was a few
years before, but the Bushnelldecided to commission the work
in celebration of a new theaterthat they opened called the
Belding Theater.
And so it was a good time forthe Bushnell to commission a

(46:08):
piece, and I had this connectionas having gone to grad school
in Hartford.
So they commissioned it and seta premiere with the Hartford
Symphony Orchestra for April of2002.
And I was invited to conductthe premiere, which, looking
back, was, you know, absolutelywonderful thing that I had the
opportunity to conduct it,because so many conductors have

(46:28):
done it.
But I did have the opportunityto do the premiere and and so I
set about that process.
I went to Ellis Island a coupleof times to do research in
what's called the Ellis IslandOral History Project, which is a
wonderful collection of about athousand interviews done
between the 1970s, 1980s and1990s, maybe even the early

(46:50):
2000s.
But the Ellis IslandImmigration Museum was opened in
the 1990s, so as part of thatprocess there was an effort made
to identify many Ellis Islandimmigrants who, of course, at
that point were generally older,in their 70s or 80s or even 90s
, but who had experiences todiscuss that had happened

(47:11):
decades before when they werevery young, but who had
experiences to discuss that hadhappened decades before when
they were very young.
And so I examined personallyover 100 of these stories from
the Oral History Project andultimately I decided on seven
stories four women, three menwho came to America from seven
different countries in Europeand Russia between the years of
1910 and 1940.

(47:34):
And Russia between the years of1910 and 1940.
So there's a 30 year spanthat's represented in the piece
and a large range of stories.
And I set about creating thescript basically just using
every word that you hear in thepiece that is spoken by an actor
or an actress is not inventedby me.
It was actually said by a realperson in the course of an
interview talking about theirlife.

(47:54):
And I tried to find balancebetween the story so that they
would make a narrative and aflow, and I spent about five
months creating the script.
It's less than 10 pages.
The script is less than 10pages long, but that, of course,
was the basis then for thewhole piece, and then I spent
about five months composing theentire score very carefully
around those stories.

(48:15):
So I wrote a six-minuteorchestral prologue that
introduces the main themes ofthe piece, that sets the tone,
that tells the audience whatkind of a piece this is going to
be, gives the musical materiala theme for the immigrants
themselves, a theme for the ideaof traveling, et cetera.
And then I very carefullyessentially underscored those

(48:36):
seven stories so that the musicis giving a kind of emotional
counterpoint to what we'reactually hearing.
We're hearing words of realpeople, but then the music is
bringing another level ofengagement emotionally to this,
and then wrote interludes thatconnect all of the stories and
ultimately and this is veryimportant I knew that I wanted
to set that whole poem by EmmaLazarus, the New Colossus, in

(49:00):
its entirety.
It's a sonnet.
And so at the end of the piece,all seven actors who are now
familiar to us as listenersbecause we've heard their
stories, one at a time they takea line from the sonnet until
they all join as a kind ofimmigrant chorus.
On the last line I lift my lampbeside the golden door and and

(49:20):
I knew that that was going to bethe kind of emotional payoff of
the whole, of the whole piece.
And so you know it was a very,I would say inspired time.
I was very inspired by thematerial.
A very hard working time and atthe end of the day, you know,
arrived at this piece that waspremiered in April 2002 and has
just never stopped being playedsince that day.

Scott Woolley (49:43):
Well, I think it's more relevant today for
people to hear, because of justwhat's going on with immigration
and the fact that this countryis coming upon its 250th
anniversary.
Yes, I mean, I think that youknow, as that celebration comes
about somehow, your piece needsto be part of that.

Peter Boyer (50:02):
Well, thank you.

Scott Woolley (50:03):
Back on Ellis Island.

Peter Boyer (50:05):
Yes, I mean absolutely, and of course.

Tiffany Woolley (50:08):
With the golden light you know over it, I could
see the whole town.

Peter Boyer (50:15):
And you know you're right, scott that things have
changed so much in this countryjust since the piece was written
I mean since 2002, manyorchestras that have presented
the piece have made note of thefact that the whole situation
has changed a great deal.
And obviously immigration hasbeen, and continues to be, a
very controversial topic, andit's interesting that you know.
Occasionally I've been askedwere you trying to make a

(50:37):
political statement with thispiece?
And the answer is absolutelynot.
This is not.
It's not a political piece,it's an historical piece it is,
I feel, full of pride too.

Tiffany Woolley (50:48):
It's just so much pride and understanding
what it meant to come here.

Peter Boyer (50:53):
And and, and the difficulties and hardships that
many people had to endure inorder to actually come here and
to settle.
And you know, as I was doing theresearch on the piece, I mean
these years ago, I was amazed torealize that there were over 12
million immigrants who camethrough Ellis Island to America
over the years in which it wasopen, between 1892 and 1954,

(51:15):
over 12 million.
And of course, as generationshave gone by, that 12 million
and their descendants has grownso dramatically.
So, you know, a significantportion of all living Americans
can trace some ancestry throughEllis Island.
So it has a very profoundconnection to our past and I
think those stories I meanobviously a big part of the
reason why the piece hasresonated so strongly with so

(51:38):
many people is that they havefound something of themselves in
their own family stories, inthose stories that I chose.
There's a kind of universalityto it and in our very
contentious times in which welive, I think that the message
of that piece is a message thatis well worth hearing,
absolutely.

Scott Woolley (51:55):
Yes, I agree, people should hear it.
So what's next creatively foryou?

Peter Boyer (52:09):
Well, it's a great segue from the point you just
made about the 250th anniversary, or 250th birthday, of the
United States.
So I actually have two majorcommissions for next year, for
2026.
And one of them has justrecently been announced, so I
can actually talk about it,which is nice, that's exciting.
And so, and then the other hasnot yet been announced, so we'll
just say there'll be another aswell, but so I'm working on a
pretty large piece.
That's a musical visual piece.
Working on a pretty large piece.

(52:31):
That's a musical visual piece.
Its title is American Mosaicand it will be about a 32-minute
work for one single narratorand orchestra with rather
incredible video.
And my collaborator on thisproject is a man named Joe Sohm,
s-o-h-m, who is quite renownedas one of the great Americana

(52:55):
photographers, and I had met himyears ago when we both were
connected through the BostonPops.
And the Boston Pops did mypiece that they commissioned way
back in 2010 about the Kennedybrothers and the legacy of the
Kennedy brothers.
That was done at Symphony Hallin Boston, with Robert De Niro

(53:15):
and Morgan Freeman and Ed Harrisall narrating the words of the
Kennedy Brothers, which wasamazing.
And Joe Soam had a piece calledVisions of America, for which
he had provided the photographsand the concept, and he was
collaborating with the composer,roger Kelleway, and the great
lyricists Alan and MarilynBergman did so much stuff for
Barbara Streisand and others, sothey worked on this piece,

(53:37):
visions of America, and we foundourselves together briefly in
Boston in 2010.
And then, about two years ago,joe contacted me out of the blue
with this marvelous idea forthis project, and he said that
after decades of going aroundthe United States to again all
50 states a kind of connectionto the other project and taking

(53:57):
thousands and thousands ofphotographs that have been
published you know so manyplaces, so many times that he
had been on a quest for the lastseven years to once again go
around all 50 states in Americabut to capture, now, high-def
video, and that he was embracingthe drone technology and the
high def video technology andthat he has been gathering this

(54:19):
incredible collection of videothat really has a sort of
national geographic feel to it.
It's very, very impressive, verybeautiful and over the course
of more than seven years, he'sgot something like 140 hours
worth of video footagestaggering.
He's gotten every major city inAmerica, the major national
monuments, historical points ofinterest and, of course, many

(54:42):
images of people, and so hisidea was to create a piece
together that would celebrateUSA 250, using my music and his
imagery.
And, even more specifically, hewanted to do what he called and
this is his term Peter Boyer'sgreatest hits, which I thought
was quite funny and that he saidwe should.

(55:03):
We should go back to your wholecatalog and give me all your
recordings, joe, and let mestart building these video
sequences to all sort of thesegreat segments from your pieces,
and let's create our own mosaicand put this together.
Um, and so that is exactlywhat's happening, and I'm very
happy to say that I love thatcollaboration.

Tiffany Woolley (55:22):
It's very exciting.

Peter Boyer (55:23):
It's a great great idea on his part and you know he
said to me that he believedthat the combination of his
catalog visually and my catalogmusically would, would create
something greater than the sumof its parts.
And I think he's really right.
There's a complementarity thatgoes together with these pieces.

Scott Woolley (55:41):
That's very strong, so has that been
commissioned.

Peter Boyer (55:43):
So it has been commissioned, and so I'm happy
to say that we can announce thefour orchestras that have
jointly co-commissioned it thusfar, and there may be more.
So the lead commissioner is theKennedy Center and the National
Symphony Orchestra, and it willbe premiered by the National
Symphony Orchestra, conducted byThomas Wilkins, at the Kennedy
Center, february 19th through22nd of 2026.

Tiffany Woolley (56:06):
So those will be the first performances in
Washington Very excited aboutthat and will you be there?

Scott Woolley (56:10):
Absolutely yes, I was going to say Did you just
recently put something out onsocial media about this?
I did.
I think I read it, yes, yes.

Peter Boyer (56:19):
So this has been in the works for a long time, but
it was finally just announced aspart of the 2025-26 season of
the National Symphony Orchestra,and I'm very proud that there
are five American composerswho've been commissioned by the
National Symphony Orchestra tocelebrate USA 250 next season,
and I'm one of those five, andthis piece American Mosaic will

(56:41):
be the first of those to beheard in February 2026.

Tiffany Woolley (56:45):
What a project.

Peter Boyer (56:47):
It's very exciting and maybe you can come to
Washington and see it.
And so it's also beenco-commissioned by, so far,
three other orchestras.
So the Cincinnati Pops thatI've worked with quite
extensively.
They will perform the work atCincinnati's Music Hall with
John Morris Russell conducting.
That's in March of 2026.
And I'm very excited that theyhave actually secured Martin

(57:09):
Sheen to narrate the piece.

Tiffany Woolley (57:10):
Oh my gosh.
So that's very exciting andobviously I've admired Martin
Sheen to narrate the piece.

Peter Boyer (57:13):
Oh my gosh, so that's very exciting and
obviously I've admired MartinSheen for my whole life.
So pretty remarkable that he'sagreed to narrate there.
That was just also justannounced within the last couple
of weeks, and Pacific Symphony,which is in Orange County, in
Costa Mesa, which is the sameconcert hall in which Ellis
Island was filmed for PBS, whichis a Sagerstrom concert hall

(57:38):
they have co-commissioned andtheir new music director,
alexander Shelley, will beconducting in late May 2026.
And then also the WilliamsburgSymphony around historic
colonial Williamsburg.
They have co-commissioned andthe piece will be performed in
colonial Williamsburg.

Tiffany Woolley (57:54):
It's such a cool place.

Scott Woolley (57:58):
So, when a piece is being commissioned by all
these different places, how arethey finding you?
Do you have an agent, a manager?
How is that all being designedin terms of being put together
or coming?

Tiffany Woolley (58:11):
together.
I want to go to the one at theKennedy Center.

Scott Woolley (58:13):
You should definitely come.

Peter Boyer (58:15):
So actually, I mean I have a publishing agent who
handles my rentals of mycatalogs to answer your question
about that because there's somuch of that going on.
You know multiple pieces everymonth and my publishing agent
handles that.

Scott Woolley (58:31):
But in this case you call it rentals, I call it
licensing.

Peter Boyer (58:34):
Yeah, well, it's actually, it's the rentals of
the orchestral music and thelicensing is actually done
through BMI.
So BMI is the Performing RightsOrganization, All of these
orchestras that play my music.
Of course they have blanketlicenses that allow them to play
works by all composers at BMIand the other one is ASCAP.

(58:55):
Works by all composers at BMIand the other one is ASCAP, and
so.
But my publishing agent handlesjust the actual rental so they
can get the physical music tothem and distribute it to the
orchestra and play it and thenget it back to the rental agent.
But in the case of this piece,I actually acted as my own agent
, for in terms of promoting theproject.
So over the course of the lastalmost two years I have
approached many orchestras withthis idea.

(59:17):
But I'll say that I went to theKennedy Center first because I
thought this is a piece that isso appropriate to be premiered
in Washington and you know, andin the National Cultural Center,
so to speak.
So, the Kennedy Center and theNational Symphony Orchestra.
We had collaborated before.
I wrote a piece called Balanceof Power that they commissioned
and that was premiered in 2021.

(59:38):
So it was a natural way toapproach them.
They said yes and said we'll bewhat we call the lead
commissioner, and then wecreated a plan to engage other
orchestras and so far threeothers have come on board and I
will say that there are a halfdozen other major orchestras who
are also considering theproject for the summer of 2026,

(01:00:00):
because it will be the big USA250 celebrations.
So I'm hopeful that in the nextcouple of months that
consortium of four may grow tosay six or more.
I'm pretty hopeful that thatwill happen, as well, I would
think so.

Tiffany Woolley (01:00:12):
I mean with the Fourth of July performances and
that kind of thing.
I feel like it goes right withfireworks.

Peter Boyer (01:00:19):
Yes, yeah, and actually we have some wonderful
imagery at the very end that Joecaptured in two different years
.
He got amazing video shots offireworks over Washington and
over the Washington Monument,but also in the previous year he
got the same thing over theWashington Monument.
But also in the previous yearhe got the same thing over the
arch in St Louis, which is wherehe's from.
So at the very end we're goingto have some very cool firework

(01:00:42):
shots that go from city to city,but it's an embarrassment of
riches visually.
And what's really sointeresting about this project
is essentially we're going tohave a kind of a movie with
narration, but the movie isbeing created to the score
rather than the score beingcreated to the movie, and I have
an opportunity to very closelycollaborate with Joe as we make

(01:01:05):
all these decisions.
And the piece is.
It's very cool because it's in11 sections that are two and a
half to three minutes each andit is based the narration is
based around quotes fromAmerican history, and so our
bookends at the beginning, atthe end are both from Benjamin
Franklin.
We have some couple of greatBen Franklin quotes, and the
first one is he wrote in aletter in 1788, near the end of

(01:01:29):
his life.
He said I almost wish it hadbeen my destiny to be born two
or three centuries hence, and hetalked about what the future of
America might be.
And that opens up the door towhere we are, which is 250 years
.

Tiffany Woolley (01:01:41):
Right.

Peter Boyer (01:01:41):
So, anyway, great Ben Franklin quotes and some of
the founding fathers and morerecent quotes from American
history.
So each section has its ownquote, its own context and its
own sort of visual design to it,and it comes from this
incredible collection of imagerythat Joe has.
Some of these drone shots thathe's gotten around America are

(01:02:02):
really just breathtaking, and weknow that when we put this with
a full symphony orchestra, abig screen and a narrator, I
think we will have a veryemotional experience for the
audience.

Tiffany Woolley (01:02:14):
I think I would think so.

Scott Woolley (01:02:17):
Do you feel that the classical orchestral music
is still growing in popularity?

Peter Boyer (01:02:25):
Yes, although obviously it has evolved over
the years.
And I mean, what's sointeresting is, you know,
orchestras in general, theaudiences for orchestral music,
always have tended to skew olderand orchestras have always at
least that I am aware of beenseeking younger audiences,
obviously because they want toreplenish and to grow the art

(01:02:48):
form.
And I mean in recent years Ithink a couple of things have
happened that have allowed doorsto open to the orchestra as a
kind of delivery system formusic that are really
interesting, and both of themhave to do with visual media,
movies and also video games.
Now, I'm not a big video gameguy.
I mean I was when I was young.
It's amazing how video gameshave become an avenue for

(01:03:19):
orchestral composers, and bigbudget video games, of which
there are many, have gotten lotsand lots of big orchestra
scores.
Again, talking about recordingit, you know abbey road and the
great studios.
So there are lots of youngerpeople, as I am seeing it, that
are getting introduced to theorchestra for the first time
through that medium and thenthose things are sometimes those
scores are performed in concertwith a live orchestra.
Now we're not saying that we candraw a direct line from that to

(01:03:41):
.
You know the symphonies ofgustav mahler, but what they
have in common is that theorchestra is the kind of
delivery system and also uh, Ithink movies, full films played
in concert, which, of course, iswhat used to happen way back in
the silent era, when orchestraswere accompanying silent film
been facilitated partiallythrough technology and through

(01:04:03):
the means of syncing,synchronizing a live performance
to film.
That technology has grown a lotand has become more accessible.
So we're seeing this all overthe place and, interestingly, so

(01:04:23):
many orchestras are.
You know they're finding thisis a great way to both to get
new audiences and also, frankly,to sell out their concert halls
.
I mean, you know, you do theStar Wars films in concert.
People love the films, peoplelove John Williams' score and to
see and hear it played live.
I've gone to the Hollywood Bowl, for example, and you're seeing
15,000, 16,000 people who aresitting and watching ET with

(01:04:48):
John Williams' score live.
There's this incredible communalexperience that's different
from just seeing a movie andhearing the orchestra on the
soundtrack.
It's different when it'sactually happening live.
So I think these things are.
They're helping to introducemany new audiences to orchestras
.
And, let's face it, this greatmusic that goes back to Bach, to

(01:05:09):
Mozart, to Beethoven, to Haydn,that music was great and it is,
is still great and it stillexists and there may be people
who will have their interestpiqued by movies and by video
games and maybe will become moreclassical music aficionados.
So I think it's growing, butalso it's changing as things do.

Scott Woolley (01:05:29):
Have you moved or done anything in the theatrical
movie feature film?

Peter Boyer (01:05:36):
so I've one.
One sort of segment of mycareer has been as an
orchestrator and, as we weretalking about earlier, you know
that process of orchestratingfrom sketches.
Uh, and so I have, I haveorchestrated, I have contributed
orchestrations to a bunch ofmovies from some very well-known
composers, including JamesNewton Howard and Thomas Newman

(01:05:57):
and Michael Giacchino and MarkIsham.
So it's interesting in thosecases because I was not the
composer of those scores, theywere the composers and wrote
wonderful music and I was a sortof small contributor to the
process, did get myself somenice screen credits et cetera,
but in terms of being engaged toactually compose music for a

(01:06:17):
feature-length film.
So this remains the kind of big, elusive thing and I feel that
one of these days director isgonna invite and say we know we
want this kind of score.
But for quite a few years mywork as an orchestrator, working
on Hollywood movies as part oforchestration teams, was
happening alongside my ownconcert composer work.
And in the last several yearsthe concert composer work has

(01:06:41):
really grown a lot andorchestration work has sort of
withered away, partially, Ithink, because I've been focused
so much on being a composer.
So we'll have to see how thosethings may perhaps rebalance in
the future or maybe just doingconcert music is going to be the
majority of what I'm doing, butthat has grown so much.
That has really become it'skind of a positive feedback loop

(01:07:02):
as I've gotten more work, I'vealso done more work and it leads
to more opportunities et cetera, in that, in that realm.

Scott Woolley (01:07:09):
Well, we appreciate you spending time
with us.

Tiffany Woolley (01:07:12):
I know so wonderful.

Scott Woolley (01:07:13):
Love this conversation Me too.

Tiffany Woolley (01:07:14):
I feel like we could do a whole nother one.
So many more questions.

Peter Boyer (01:07:18):
Great to talk to you and you know it's so nice to
often I talk to people who wereall in the kind of classical
music realm and it's reallyinteresting to talk to people
who come from another realm andto know the kind of you know the
kind of curiosity that peoplewho are not doing this every day
may bring to it and ask thekinds of questions that show
that curiosity, and hopefullyI've been able to shed a little

(01:07:41):
bit of light on what it is thatorchestral composers do.

Scott Woolley (01:07:43):
Well, I'm going to reach out to you about
finding out where and whenyou're going to be doing another
piece and also keep in the backof your mind if you happen to
be coming to florida, you gottalet us know.
Yes absolutely.
That would be great, that wouldbe wonderful appreciate the
time and it was a greatconversation and thank you very

(01:08:05):
much thank you, scott, thank youthank you.

Peter Boyer (01:08:07):
Thank you meet you in person again one of these
days, absolutely Thank you forlistening to another iDesign
episode iDesign Labs podcast isan SW Group production in
association with the Five Starand TW Interiors.

Voice Over (01:08:23):
To learn more about iDesign Lab or TW Interiors,
please visit twinteriorscom.