Peter Nero
Encyclopedia
Peter Nero is an American
pianist
and pops
conductor.
in 1956.
his first album
in 1961, and won a Grammy Award
that year for "Best New Artist." Since then, he has received another Grammy, garnered ten additional nominations and released 67 album
s. Nero's early association with RCA Records
produced 23 albums in eight years. His subsequent move to Columbia Records
resulted in a million-selling single
and album - Summer of '42.
His first major national TV
success came at the age of seventeen when he was chosen to perform Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue
on Paul Whiteman
's TV Special. He subsequently appeared on many top variety and talk shows including 11 guest appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show
, and numerous appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
.
Hailed as one of the premier interpreters of Gershwin, Nero starred in the Emmy Award
-winning NBC Special, S'Wonderful, S'Marvelous, S'Gershwin. Other TV credits include performances on PBS-TV Piano Pizzazz and with the National Symphony in Washington, D.C.
on its July 4 special titled A Capitol Fourth. Nero served as music director
and pianist for the PBS-TV special The Songs of Johnny Mercer
: Too Marvelous for Words with co-stars Johnny Mathis
, Melissa Manchester
and many members of The POPS.
In 1963 Nero composed and performed the musical score for the major motion picture Sunday in New York
. The title song has been recorded by over two dozen vocalists and the score was nominated for both a Golden Globe and Hollywood Reporter Award. He also made an appearance in the film alongside Jane Fonda
, Rod Taylor, and Cliff Robertson
. Additionally Jane Fonda's character gave her brother (Robertson)a a Nero recording ablum during the film which was most probably an early form of product "placement".
Nero has worked with a long list of notable musicians over the years such as Frank Sinatra
, Mel Torme
, Andy Williams
, Ray Charles
, Dizzy Gillespie
, Diane Schuur
, Johnny Mathis
, Roger Kellaway
, Elton John
, and others.
Nero's recordings over the last 15 years include albums with full symphony orchestra: On My Own, Classical Connections and My Way. He recorded Peter Nero and Friends, which contains collaborations with Mel Torme
, Maureen McGovern
and Doc Severinsen
, among others. Nero's latest albums are romantic albums titled Love Songs for a Rainy Day and More in Love. By popular demand, four of his earlier recordings have been re-issued. Nero most recently appears in Rod Stewart
's album, As Time Goes By: The Great American Songbook, Volume II.
, Ray Charles
, when asked about his favorite pianist was quoted as saying, "Art Tatum
could play anything he wanted to. He's one of the few people who I truly believe could play anything he thought of… and Peter Nero plays his buns off!"
Nero's long list of honors include six Honorary Doctorates, the most recent from Drexel University
in 2004, and the prestigious International Society of Performing Arts Presenters Award for "Excellence in the Arts." He is also included on two historic walks of fame - one in Philadelphia, and one in Miami, Florida
. In 1999, he received the Pennsylvania Distinguished Arts Award, presented by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge
. Previous honorees include Marian Anderson
, James Michener, Andrew Wyeth
and Riccardo Muti
. In 2009 Nero was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Federation of Musicians
.
One of Nero's greatest achievements is being the founding Music Director of the world renowned Peter Nero and the Philly Pops
.
He currently is the artistic director and conductor of Peter Nero and the Philly Pops.
Nero has long been a devotee and advocate of consumer electronics. His expertise has led him to be dubbed a "technocrat" by leaders of the industry. While computers and other electronics have made him "the Gadget King," he still makes music on the traditional Steinway
concert grand piano.
He is the father of two children, Beverly and Jedd, and two grandchildren, Robert and Nicole Nero.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
and pops
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
conductor.
Early life
Born in Brooklyn, New York, As Bernard Nierow, Nero started his formal music training at the age of seven. He studied piano under Frederick Bried. By the time he was fourteen, he was accepted to New York City's High School of Music and Art and won a scholarship to the Juilliard School of Music. Constance Keene, his teacher and mentor, once wrote in an issue of Keyboard Classics, "Vladimir Horowitz was Peter's greatest fan!" He graduated from Brooklyn CollegeBrooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...
in 1956.
Early career
Nero recordedSound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
his first album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
in 1961, and won a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
that year for "Best New Artist." Since then, he has received another Grammy, garnered ten additional nominations and released 67 album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
s. Nero's early association with RCA Records
RCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
produced 23 albums in eight years. His subsequent move to Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
resulted in a million-selling single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
and album - Summer of '42.
His first major national TV
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
success came at the age of seventeen when he was chosen to perform Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue
Rhapsody in Blue
Rhapsody in Blue is a musical composition by George Gershwin for solo piano and jazz band written in 1924, which combines elements of classical music with jazz-influenced effects....
on Paul Whiteman
Paul Whiteman
Paul Samuel Whiteman was an American bandleader and orchestral director.Leader of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s, Whiteman's recordings were immensely successful, and press notices often referred to him as the "King of Jazz"...
's TV Special. He subsequently appeared on many top variety and talk shows including 11 guest appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan....
, and numerous appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under the Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992. It originally aired during late-night....
.
Hailed as one of the premier interpreters of Gershwin, Nero starred in the Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
-winning NBC Special, S'Wonderful, S'Marvelous, S'Gershwin. Other TV credits include performances on PBS-TV Piano Pizzazz and with the National Symphony in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
on its July 4 special titled A Capitol Fourth. Nero served as music director
Music director
A music director may be the director of an orchestra, the director of music for a film, the director of music at a radio station, the head of the music department in a school, the co-ordinator of the musical ensembles in a university or college , the head bandmaster of a military band, the head...
and pianist for the PBS-TV special The Songs of Johnny Mercer
Johnny Mercer
John Herndon "Johnny" Mercer was an American lyricist, songwriter and singer. He is best known as a lyricist, but he also composed music. He was also a popular singer who recorded his own songs as well as those written by others...
: Too Marvelous for Words with co-stars Johnny Mathis
Johnny Mathis
John Royce "Johnny" Mathis is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standards, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum status, and 73 making the Billboard charts...
, Melissa Manchester
Melissa Manchester
Melissa Manchester is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Beginning in the 1970s, she has recorded generally in the adult contemporary genre. She has also appeared as an actress on television, in films, and on stage....
and many members of The POPS.
In 1963 Nero composed and performed the musical score for the major motion picture Sunday in New York
Sunday in New York
Sunday in New York, filmed in Metrocolor, is a 1963 American comedy film directed by Peter Tewksbury and starring Jane Fonda, Cliff Robertson, and Rod Taylor. It was one of Fonda's earliest films, and she was called "the loveliest and most gifted of all our new young actresses" by Newsday...
. The title song has been recorded by over two dozen vocalists and the score was nominated for both a Golden Globe and Hollywood Reporter Award. He also made an appearance in the film alongside Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...
, Rod Taylor, and Cliff Robertson
Cliff Robertson
Clifford Parker "Cliff" Robertson III was an American actor with a film and television career that spanned half of a century. Robertson portrayed a young John F. Kennedy in the 1963 film PT 109, and won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the movie Charly...
. Additionally Jane Fonda's character gave her brother (Robertson)a a Nero recording ablum during the film which was most probably an early form of product "placement".
Nero has worked with a long list of notable musicians over the years such as Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
, Mel Torme
Mel Tormé
Melvin Howard Tormé , nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books...
, Andy Williams
Andy Williams
Howard Andrew "Andy" Williams is an American singer who has recorded 18 Gold- and three Platinum-certified albums. He hosted The Andy Williams Show, a TV variety show, from 1962 to 1971, as well as numerous television specials, and owns his own theater, the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri,...
, Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
, Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
, Diane Schuur
Diane Schuur
Diane Schuur is an American jazz singer and pianist. Nicknamed "Deedles", she has won two Grammy Awards, headlined many of the world's most prestigious music venues, including Carnegie Hall and The White House and has toured the world performing with such greats as Quincy Jones, Stan Getz, B. B...
, Johnny Mathis
Johnny Mathis
John Royce "Johnny" Mathis is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standards, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum status, and 73 making the Billboard charts...
, Roger Kellaway
Roger Kellaway
Roger Kellaway is an American composer, arranger, and pianist.Born in Waban, Massachusetts, he is an alumnus of the New England Conservatory...
, Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
, and others.
Nero's recordings over the last 15 years include albums with full symphony orchestra: On My Own, Classical Connections and My Way. He recorded Peter Nero and Friends, which contains collaborations with Mel Torme
Mel Tormé
Melvin Howard Tormé , nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books...
, Maureen McGovern
Maureen McGovern
Maureen Therese McGovern is an American singer and Broadway actress, well known for her premier renditions of the Oscar winning songs "The Morning After" from the 1972 film The Poseidon Adventure, and "We May Never Love Like This Again" from The Towering Inferno in 1974.-Early life:McGovern was...
and Doc Severinsen
Doc Severinsen
Carl Hilding "Doc" Severinsen is an American pop and jazz trumpeter. He is best known for leading the NBC Orchestra on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.-Early life:...
, among others. Nero's latest albums are romantic albums titled Love Songs for a Rainy Day and More in Love. By popular demand, four of his earlier recordings have been re-issued. Nero most recently appears in Rod Stewart
Rod Stewart
Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer-songwriter and musician, born and raised in North London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry....
's album, As Time Goes By: The Great American Songbook, Volume II.
Awards and honors
In an issue of Keyboard MagazineKeyboard Magazine
Keyboard Magazine is a magazine that originally covered electronic keyboard instruments and keyboardists, though with the advent of computer based recording and audio technology, they have added digital music technology to their regular coverage, including those not strictly pertaining to the...
, Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
, when asked about his favorite pianist was quoted as saying, "Art Tatum
Art Tatum
Arthur "Art" Tatum, Jr. was an American jazz pianist and virtuoso who played with phenomenal facility despite being nearly blind.Tatum is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time...
could play anything he wanted to. He's one of the few people who I truly believe could play anything he thought of… and Peter Nero plays his buns off!"
Nero's long list of honors include six Honorary Doctorates, the most recent from Drexel University
Drexel University
Drexel University is a private research university with the main campus located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a noted financier and philanthropist. Drexel offers 70 full-time undergraduate programs and accelerated degrees...
in 2004, and the prestigious International Society of Performing Arts Presenters Award for "Excellence in the Arts." He is also included on two historic walks of fame - one in Philadelphia, and one in Miami, Florida
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
. In 1999, he received the Pennsylvania Distinguished Arts Award, presented by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge
Tom Ridge
Thomas Joseph "Tom" Ridge is an American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives , the 43rd Governor of Pennsylvania , Assistant to the President for Homeland Security , and the first United States Secretary of Homeland Security...
. Previous honorees include Marian Anderson
Marian Anderson
Marian Anderson was an African-American contralto and one of the most celebrated singers of the twentieth century...
, James Michener, Andrew Wyeth
Andrew Wyeth
Andrew Newell Wyeth was a visual artist, primarily a realist painter, working predominantly in a regionalist style. He was one of the best-known U.S. artists of the middle 20th century....
and Riccardo Muti
Riccardo Muti
Riccardo Muti, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI is an Italian conductor and music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.-Childhood and education:...
. In 2009 Nero was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Federation of Musicians
American Federation of Musicians
The American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada is a labor union of professional musicians in the United States and Canada...
.
One of Nero's greatest achievements is being the founding Music Director of the world renowned Peter Nero and the Philly Pops
Philly Pops
The Philly Pops is an orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Led by two time GRAMMY Award-winningpianist Peter Nero, Peter Nero and the Philly Pops is an entity that consistently brings an enthusiastic response from its audience...
.
He currently is the artistic director and conductor of Peter Nero and the Philly Pops.
Personal life
He is an active participant committed to many important causes, including the funding of school music programs, fundraising for the building of new arts centers across the country, as well as research for cancer, dystonia and autism.Nero has long been a devotee and advocate of consumer electronics. His expertise has led him to be dubbed a "technocrat" by leaders of the industry. While computers and other electronics have made him "the Gadget King," he still makes music on the traditional Steinway
Steinway & Sons
Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway , is an American and German manufacturer of handmade pianos, founded 1853 in Manhattan in New York City by German immigrant Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg...
concert grand piano.
He is the father of two children, Beverly and Jedd, and two grandchildren, Robert and Nicole Nero.