Peter Schoenbach

Dr. Peter J. Schoenbach earned degrees from Swarthmore College and Columbia University before completing his doctorate in Spanish and Portuguese at Rutgers. He has published extensively in the fields of Latin American Literature, especially theatre with emphasis on Brazil, and the music of the Hispanic world. He became Director of the School of Music at the State University of New York at Fredonia in 1993 after nine years at Wayne State University in Detroit, and retired in the fall of 2005. Dr. Schoenbach was a member of the Board of Directors of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Chairman of its Education Committee from 1997 until 2003. He rejoined the faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music in 2008, teaching courses on World Music in the department of Musical Studies. A life-long musician, Dr. Schoenbach has a career in music administration that spans almost 30 years and includes other appointments at Boston University, the New England Conservatory of Music, and the Curtis Institute. He is an accomplished bassoonist and woodwind coach and has performed at summer festivals such as the Berkshire Music Festival (Tanglewood), Marlboro, and Bowdoin, and was Director of the School of Music at the Chautauqua Institution from 1997 until 2002. He has performed as an extra player with the Philadelphia, Minnesota, English Chamber, Detroit and Buffalo Orchestras. In recent years, he has been a lecturer on cruise ships traveling to Latin America.