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Breiner, Peter (3rd July 1957-Present)

He is a conductor, pianist, arranger, composer, journalist and television personality, who speaks seven different languages, born in Hummene, Czechoslovkia.  He began to perform on the piano when he was four years old and when he was nine entered Kosice Conservatory to study composition, conducting, piano and percussion.  From there went to the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, graduating in 1982.

His career in music went from strength to strength as an internationally acclaimed pianist and conductor and he has worked with many ensembles that include the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Capella Istropolitana, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hungarian State Radio Orchestra, the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, the Nicolas Esterhazy Sinfonia, Orchestre National de Lille, the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra and is hailed as “one of the world’s most recorded musicians” with over 100 recordings to date.  These include An American Salute, Spirit of the Nation, Beatles Go Baroque, The Best of Haydn, Chill With Satie, Christmas Goes Baroque, Gershwin for Trumpet, Let It Be…J.S. Bach, Songs and Dances from the Silk Road, Spanish Guitar, Russian Romance, Tango Goes Symphony and Tchaikovsky: The Seasons.

He was resident in Canada for 14 years from 1992 to 2006 and then moved to the United State and settled in New York.  As an arranger he has over 500 works to his credit and his Christmas music and adaptations of The Beatles and Elvis Presley into the Baroque style have been highly acclaimed.

His own compositions include two symphonies, works for orchestra, choral and chamber music and the oratorio The Story.  His work featured in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens when his recording of the world’s national anthems was used at each medal ceremony.

In the world of radio and television he has presented several programmes on the subject of music and is also known for Do You Have Something Against That, which was the controversial talk show aired on Slovak television that was banned in 2000.

He is also extensively used as a composer, conductor and arranger on film and television and his work appears in As the World Turns, Blackheart, The Bold and the Beautiful, Catch a Falling Star, The Chosen, Confession, Dragonheart II: A New Beginning, The Fourth Angel, I Remember April and Word of Honor to name just a tiny selection.

If all this isn’t enough, he also writes a column for a Slovakia newspaper each week and published his best-selling book “Maple Leaves” in 1998.

Sources:

  1. http://pages.interlog.com/~pbreiner/complete.html
  2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Breiner
  3. http://pages.interlog.com/~pbreiner/f&tv.html
  4. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0003384/
  5. http://www.naxos.com/conductorinfo/Peter_Breiner/31518.htm
  6. http://www.fanfaire.com/viewersbylines/index.html
  7. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=41:14793~T3