Peter Dugan, age 21, began studying piano at the age of five in Philadelphia, PA, where his teachers included Aida Epstein and Harvey Wedeen. A Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Scholar, a National AP Scholar, and a National Merit Scholar, Mr. Dugan is entering his fourth year at The Juilliard School in New York City, where he studies with Matti Raekallio. Mr. Dugan participated in the Perlman Music Program (PMP) during high school summers and has since returned as one of three pianists in PMP’s Chamber Music Workshop, where his coaches included Itzhak Perlman and the Weilersteins. At the Curtis Institute and at the University of Pennsylvania, Peter premiered five contemporary pieces for his brother, composer Leonardo Dugan.
Peter has won first prizes at the West Chester University Piano Competition, the Tri-County Concerts Association Competition, and the Warminster Symphony Young Artists’ Competition. He has appeared as a soloist with the Warminster Symphony, the Bryn Athyn Orchestra, and the Philadelphia All-Catholic Orchestra and has played at such venues as Philadelphia’s Academy of Music, the Kimmel Center and WXPN World Café Live, New York’s Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall, and Chicago’s Preston Bradley Hall.
In addition to his solo appearances, Mr. Dugan performs extensively as a chamber musician, jazz pianist, and blues/gospel organist. Last year he made his Carnegie Hall debut at Weill Recital Hall. Mr. Dugan was invited to attend and perform in John O’Conor’s Beethoven Interpretation Course last summer at the villa of Wilhelm Kempff in Positano, Italy. In February, Peter was invited to perform Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet with Itzhak Perlman at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Recently showcased on NPR’s From the Top with his piano trio, Dugan was praised by The Philadelphia Inquirer as “a little guy with a huge presence, moving artfully at the keyboard…even without the visuals, he can swing.”
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