James Touchi-Peters

James Touchi-Peters is an American composer, symphonic conductor, lyricist, pianist, jazz vocalist and record producer. A former child-prodigy orchestra conductor, an online social network for the highly accomplished that received worldwide media attention when it launched in the fall of 2014; it folded after three months.

Early life and career

Touchi-Peters is a first-generation American, born to a Romanian mother and an Albanian father. He was born and raised in Red Wing, Minnesota, where his father owned a soda fountain and candy store. At sixteen he was hired as music director of the adult civic orchestra in his hometown; By the age of twenty he had performed all the Beethoven symphonies from memory.

Touchi-Peters attended the University of Miami School of Music specifically to study conducting with Frederick Fennell, who had previously mentored his cousin, percussionist Mitchell Peters. and shared a stand in the double-bass section of the university orchestra with Will Lee. At 22 he was appointed Associate Music Director of Canada's Thunder Bay Symphony; this appointment made him the youngest conductor in the world working with a legitimate professional orchestra.

Touchi-Peters left the Thunder Bay Symphony after only one season: "I suddenly realized I was going to spend the rest of my life conducting the same two-hundred pieces over and over again, and that realization scared the crap out of me." He moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as a composer and record producer for several years. To support himself in lean times he began spinning dance records in LA nightclubs (he lied about his experience to get his first job), and eventually became quite well-known and in demand locally as a deejay. and Touchi-Peters, who is not gay, was told that he would not be considered for the permanent position for that reason. He accepted the interim appointment under those conditions. However, most of those qualms were put to rest once Touchi-Peters began performing with the ensemble. His nine-year tenure with the Minnesota Philharmonic was marked by almost universally-positive reviews from music critics and consistently sold-out performances, and the programs became known for his insightful and often humorous narrations from the stage. (Curt Oliver of Gaze Magazine wrote, "Throughout the evening, Touchi-Peters served as program host as well as conductor. He's good at this, too! ...wonderfully witty opening remarks... He is a musician's musician and a wonderful conductor, whose energy and personality beam out to players and listeners." ) When he stepped down in September 2001, the orchestra appointed him to the honorary position of Conductor Emeritus for life. ), numerous orchestra concerti and several pieces for concert band. Production on the album Nights in Manhattan began shortly thereafter. Inspired by the defining concept albums Frank Sinatra recorded with Nelson Riddle in the 1950s, and other news outlets dubbing it "Facebook for rich people" and Jimmy Fallon devoting a comedic bit to it on "The Tonight Show", complete with fake screen shots. Many participants in social media considered it a crass example of flagrant income inequality.

In a December 17, 2014 article in USA Today, He currently lives in Minneapolis.