Russell Peck

01 / The Detroit story

The Detroit story

Peck was born in Detroit in 1945. His father, Tom, had sung in the Detroit Symphony Chorus for the Ford Sunday Evening Hour radio broadcasts in the late 1930s and early 1940s, and encouraged his son's love of classical music. Russell began piano in fifth grade and played trombone in his high school band and orchestra, while the soul music pouring out of Detroit in his teenage years shaped his ear as much as Mozart and Beethoven did. He studied at the University of Michigan with Leslie Bassett, Ross Lee Finney, Gunther Schuller and George Rochberg, and won the Koussevitzky Prize at Tanglewood in 1966. His music, known for melodic flow and driving rhythm, has been played thousands of times by orchestras worldwide. His percussion concerto The Glory and the Grandeur, the narrated showpiece The Thrill of the Orchestra and the timpani concerto Harmonic Rhythm, commissioned by 39 orchestras, are his best-known works.

Highlights

1. Percussion concerto The Glory and the Grandeur
2. Timpani concerto Harmonic Rhythm, commissioned by 39 orchestras (2000–2001)
3. Koussevitzky Prize at Tanglewood, 1966
4. Blended classical form with the Motown sound of his Detroit youth