Peter Knell (b. 1970) has received awards in numerous national and international competitions, including First Prizes in the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra's 10th New Music Festival International Composers Competition, the Indiana State University Contemporary Music Festival/Louisville Orchestra Prize, and the Omaha Symphony Guild International New Music Competition, and Second Prizes in the Fourth International Witold Lutoslawski Composers Competition, the First International Composers' Competition "In Memoriam Zoltán Kodály", and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra's Young Composers Competition. He has also received a Fulbright Fellowship, a BMI Student Composer Award, two ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composers Awards, grants from the Paloheimo Foundation and Meet the Composer, and commissions from the Fromm Music Foundation/Ying Quartet, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, Utah Arts Festival, Pacific Serenades, Oakland East Bay Symphony, and Dale Warland Singers, among others.
Mr. Knell’s music has been performed at the Aspen, Bowdoin, Chautauqua, June in Buffalo, Norfolk, Oregon Bach, Ernest Bloch, New Music North and MATA festivals, by ensembles such as the Hungarian Radio Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, Kremlin Chamber Orchestra, Filharmonia de Stat “Transilvania”, Winnipeg, Omaha, Richmond, Memphis, and Oakland East Bay Symphony Orchestras, the Onyx String Quartet, Verdi Quartett, Southwest Chamber Music, Volti Chamber Chorus, counter)induction, and by soloists including James Dunham, Martin Chalifour, and the German alto Ingeborg Danz. It has been broadcast nationally in Russia, Canada, Hungary and Finland, as well as in several US cities. His Seven Last Words, based on paintings of Rolf Stein, is available in a book/CD format from Valve-Hearts, Cologne. A compact disc featuring his orchestral work, "...the weakening eye of day" in a live performance by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra, is available on the Artisjus label, and a compact disc featuring German pianist Susanne Kessel performing two of his Four Snapshots was released by OehmsClassics in February 2006. An upcoming CD of his complete piano music performed by Markus Pawlik is in process. His orchestral work LINES/ANGLES was the American selection for the ISCM World Music Days 2009 and will be performed in September 2009 by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Knell holds degrees from Princeton University (BA), the Juilliard School (MM), and the University of Texas at Austin (DMA), and he was a Fulbright Fellow at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland. His principal composition teachers have included Dan Welcher, Donald Grantham, and David Diamond. He is currently a freelance composer based in Los Angeles, and he served as Composer-in-Residence for the American Music Festival in Cluj, Romania, in November 2004.