Peter Chwazik
Instrumentalist
Multi-instrumentalist and composer Peter Chwazik is a principal member of Alligator Mouth Improv, and has been active in the performing arts in upstate New York for 25 years.
As a composer, Chwazik has been commissioned to score modern dance pieces for Lois Welk and American Dance Asylum (The Lois Welk Show, 1995; Soul-ly For You, 1996; Parking Ramp Dance, 1996; Vroom!, 1998), Jill Becker Dance (A Day of Moving Art, 1998-1999), and Jeanne Goddard and CRS Barn Dance (Re: Cycling, 2006). He also has composed improvised scores for David Dorfman Dance and Mark Taylor Dance Alloy (Joint Motion\Improvisation, 1998). He has received four Meet the Composer grants.
As a performer, he has worked with free jazz trumpeter Don Cherry and New York Voices, co-writing the song "Soon One Day" from their "Hearts of Fire" CD (GRP). Through the 1990s he toured and recorded with a trio led by experimental cellist Hank Roberts, documented on the disc "I'll Always Remember" (LevelGreen). Recently he recorded and toured the US with former Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio, appearing on his albums "Shine" (Sony, 2005), "Bar 17" and "18 Steps" (Rubber Jungle, 2006).
Chwazik has toured throughout North America and Europe, appearing at international jazz festivals in Switzerland, Germany, France, England, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Greece, Canada and the US. His work with the Nana Simopoulos Group can be heard on "The Best of the 1989 Montreaux Jazz Festival, Part II" (BMG, 1989). He also performs regionally with vocalist Nancy Kelly, the Central New York Jazz Orchestra, and pianist Dino Losito; and he is music director for the CRS Barn production "Opera Cowpokes."
Peter is active as an educator. He is a lecturer in the Jazz Studies Department at Ithaca College, and a lesson instructor affiliated with Cornell University, both in Ithaca, NY. From 1993 to 1998, he developed the curriculum for and co-facilitated one-week summer jazz camps at 171 Cedar Arts Center in Corning, NY, and at the Community School of Music and Art in Ithaca, NY. Both programs were for students 12 - 18 years old, and focused on group and individual instruction in improvisation, jazz theory, combo performance and big band performance. He has provided individual and group private instruction at Tompkins Cortland Community College, several community arts centers, and his private studio since 1981.