Peter James Saleh

Peter James Saleh, an active percussionist and composer in the New York and New Jersey area, is a founding member and resident composer of the Exit 9 Percussion Group, which has performed more than 350 concerts and clinics, including on both U.S. coasts and tours of Asia. He is also a regular drum sub at the New World Stages production of Avenue Q.  Notable performances include Baryshnikov Arts Center, McCarter Theater, the George Street Playhouse, NYMF, FringeNYC, the Xylopholks, and NABBA, and a solo tour of Taiwan and Korea. He has also performed with the Monmouth and Plainfield Symphonies, the Bravura Philharmonic, the Greenwich Village Singers, Encompass New Opera Theater, Center City Opera Company, Matthew Barney, and Simon Boyar and premiered works by Bruce Hamilton, Dajeong Choi, Evan Mack, and Mark Zuckerman.

In the world of modern dance, he has collaborated with and scored work for choreographers Christian Von Howard, Raegan Wood, Paulette Sears, Julia Ritter, and Ronnie Carney and has performed and presented original work at ACDFA, the Aliey Citigroup Theater, the Joffrey School, NJPAC, and at the Rutgers faculty series DancePlus. He is resident composer with the New York City–based Von Howard project; a faculty member in the Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College, where he teaches a course in music for dance; and a modern dance accompanist at the Juilliard School.

Saleh’s scores for percussion, published by four companies, have been performed throughout the country, and he won second place in the 2007 Percussive Arts Society Composition Contest. He is also the author of the pedagogic text, A Percussionist’s Handbook (Bachovich Music Publications), which is currently in use in college programs.

Saleh has placed his private students into some of the best conservatories and university music programs in the country; guest-lectured at Western Washington University, University of Delaware, Rutgers, and the Juilliard precollege division; been a fellow at the University of North Texas; and served as a teaching artist for NJPAC, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Young Audiences of NJ. He teaches as an adjunct professor of percussion at the College of St. Elizabeth in Morristown, N.J., is on faculty at the Mason Gross School of the Arts Extension Division and the Youth Orchestra of Central Jersey as percussion coach, and is a member of BMI and AFM Local 802.