Email: bookings@andrewjpeters.com
Organist and conductor Andrew Peters serves as director of music and organist at Augustana Lutheran Church in Denver. He previously worked for fourteen years at Second Presbyterian Church in St. Louis where he oversaw the restoration of the 1965 Schantz organ and founded the Couts Music Series which provides free cultural outreach to the community. In addition to playing solo organ recitals and leading hymn festivals, Peters accompanies silent films starring Harold Lloyd.
A recipient of numerous awards, Peters has received the Paul and Ruth Manz Organ and Church Music Award, the John Rodland Memorial Church Music Scholarship, and the Peter B. Knock Memorial Church Music Scholarship. He won first place in the Twin Cities American Guild of Organists (AGO) Young Artists Competition and second place in both the San Marino National Organ Competition and the Region VI AGO Young Artists Competition. He was also a Semifinalist in the National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance.
Since 2013 Peters has been ensemble organist with the St. Louis Symphony. He has played under numerous conductors including Karina Canallakis, Sir Andrew Davis, Stéphane Denève, Matthew Halls, Bernard Labadie, Gemma New, David Robertson, Nathalie Stutzmann, Masaaki Suzuki, and Xian Zhang. His first season included performing Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes at Carnegie Hall on what would have been Britten’s one hundredth birthday.
Through his work with the Second Church Chorale and Orchestra, Peters conducted works of Elgar, Handel, Haydn, Goodall, Mozart, Schubert, Vaughan Williams, Vivaldi, and more. As assistant conductor of the Metropolitan Orchestra of St. Louis, he conducted music of Beethoven, Brahms, Dvořák, Pärt, and Suk while serving as cover conductor for all other concerts. He has studied conducting with Steven Amundson, Allen Carl Larson, Dennis Keene, Timothy Mahr, and Robert Scholz.
As a member of the AGO, Peters serves as a member of the Denver Rocky Mountain AGO executive board. He was previously program chair and dean of the Nashville AGO Chapter and later worked on the national AGO’s Committee on the New Organist. In St. Louis he served on the chapter’s executive committee, directed the 2010 Pipe Organ Encounter, and chaired the 2015 Region VI Convention.
A graduate of St. Olaf College and the Cleveland Institute of Music, Peters has studied organ and church music with Agnes Armstrong, Douglas Cleveland, Carla Edwards, John Ferguson, Wilma Jensen, Barbara and Noel Piercy, and Todd Wilson. He has served Episcopalian, Presbyterian, United Church of Christ, and United Methodist congregations in Connecticut, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, and Tennessee. He has been featured as a guest commentator on the radio program Great Sacred Music and organist on Pipedreams. His music is published by Augsburg Fortress, MorningStar Music, and Paraclete Press. He and his wife live in the city of Denver.