Join us August 9, 2020 at 7:00 pm for a Livestream Zoom Event
Peter H. Bloom and Mark Harvey celebrate their new CD, A Rite for All Souls
Long-lost recording of a 1971 concert by their avant-garde quartet The Mark Harvey Group

Free admission.  Registration required. 
Click here to register

About Peter H. Bloom:
"A revelation for unforced sweetness and strength”  The Boston Globe
"Exquisite melody…the improvisations growing organically out of the theme”   Jazz Improv
“Bringing just the right touch to everything from Chopin to Satie”  - Bostonia Magazine
 “His solos on flute and amplified flute are always highlights of a performance.”   -ArtsFuse
“wonderful flute birdsong obligato” ~ Lute News (The English Lute Society)
"...vibrant and elegant sounds...compelling musical presentations...exquisite musicianship. It was a wonderful evening that our staff, members and all those in the audience will long remember."  - American Antiquarian Society

​Peter H. Bloom, flute, alto flute, bass flute and piccolo, concertizes in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand; appears on 47 recordings (Sony Classical, Dorian, Leo Records, other labels); and has given workshops, master classes and lecture-demos across the globe.  He serves as contributing editor for Noteworthy Sheet Music; and is a winner of the American Musicological Society’s Noah Greenberg Award.   His career encompasses diverse chamber music from the Renaissance to the 21st century, as well as jazz standards, blues, bebop, free improvisation, and the avant-garde.

Bangkok, Silpakorn University

An active recitalist and chamber musician, Mr. Bloom performs with Ensemble Aubade,  the Karl Henning Ensemble, Olmsted Ensemble, the Duo “2” (with pianist/harpist Mary Jane Rupert), mezzo-soprano D’Anna Fortunato, and others, and has performed for New Zealand School of Music in Wellington, University of Canberra College of Music (Australia), Payap University in Chiang Mai, Goethe Institute in Bangkok,  University of Canterbury in Christchurch NZ, Mahidol University (Salaya, Thailand), The National Gallery of Art (Washington DC), The Metropolitan Museum, The Wadsworth Athenaeum, and at colleges and universities across the United States, including Harvard University, Georgetown University, Princeton University, Indiana State University, Washington University in St. Louis, Kenyon College, Wellesley College, Bowdoin College, Brevard College, Georgia College, and many more.

​A champion of new music, Mr. Bloom collaborates extensively with composers and has given premieres of works by Mark Harvey, Elizabeth Vercoe, Elliott Schwartz,  Narong Prangcharoen,  Karl Henning, Pamela Marshall, Edward Jacobs, Richard Nelson, Tim O'Dell, Marianela Maduro, Len Detlor,  Peter Aldins, Richard Cornell, John Felice, Timothy Bowlby, Paul Brust, Matt Samolis, and others.  Original compositions, including numerous works written for him, have been a vital part of his concert tours for more than three decades, across forty states and four continents. He has performed in festivals and series for adventurous music, including the Back Cove Contemporary Music Festival, the Autumn Uprising Festival of New Music, Todd Brunel’s Vortex Series for New and Improvised Music, the Ninth Ear Composers Collective, Boston's Church of the Advent Library Concert Series, Composers in Red Sneakers, and Open Sound, among others. 

University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

St. Mary le Tower, Ipswich, UK

Mr. Bloom is a noted interpreter of early music, and has given period-instrument concerts in the United States, Canada and Europe, appearing chiefly with Ensemble Chaconne (founding member, 1985). He has performed with the group at the National Gallery in London, Atlanta’s famed Spivey Hall, the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park Florida, Connecticut Early Music Festival, the Royal Shakespeare Company’s residency at Davidson College, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the 30th Annual Medieval and Renaissance Forum (Plymouth, NH), and the 40th Annual Meeting of the Shakespeare Association of America, among others.  Read about Ensemble Chaconne.

Columbia, South Carolina

As a specialist in historical flutes, Mr. Bloom has given lecture-recitals for Animusic Portugal (Braga), The New York Flute Club, The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, The American Musical Instrument Society, The National Flute Association, Early Music Boulder, Historic Macon (Georgia), Christie's-New York, and others, and has curated period-instrument recordings for The New York Historical Society, The American Museum of Britain (Bath, UK), and the American Antiquarian Society.  Since 1995, he has served as historical instrument consultant to The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, where he has lectured and performed on instruments in the collection, and has recorded for the audio guide to woodwinds.  In recent years, the Museum added several recordings to its musical instrument archive, including a video of Bloom performing on the Museum’s five-key flute in crystal glass and silver (1837) by the French maker Claude Laurent. Bloom is author of the Alfred G. Badger entry in the Lexikon der Flöte.  

Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Bloom performing on crystal flute (1837) by the French maker Claude Laurent

The Marlowe A. Sigal Collection, lecture-demo (flute by Jacques Delusse, Paris, c. 1775)

Braga, Portugal, recital on flutes by the great 19th century American maker Alfred G. Badger

Christie's, New York, demonstrating the ex-Kincaid platinum flute by Verne Q Powell

Mr. Bloom’s career in jazz encompasses standards, blues, bebop, free improvisation, and the avant-garde.  He has appeared with jazz luminaries Charles Neville, Jaki Byard, Sheila Jordan, Geri Allen, Ricky Ford, Walter Thompson, Raj Mehta, Mark Harvey and other luminaries.  He is a founding member of The Modernistics, and lead his own jazz groups with pianist John Funkhouser, guitarist Mark Leighton,  bassist Dave Zox, and other notables.

A 44-year veteran with the internationally acclaimed Aardvark Jazz Orchestra (“a bracing walk on the wild side of the big band spectrum” JazzTimes), Bloom has performed with the band at hundreds of venues and appears on all of Aardvark's fifteen CDs, including nine discs on Leo Records, one of the world’s leading adventuresome music  labels. With members of Aardvark, he recorded improvised music for the National Film Preservation Foundation’s DVD series Treasures from the American Film Archives, which The New York Times called “one of the best sets of the year.”   

Bloom is featured on A Rite for All Souls, a new CD just released, presenting a long lost recording of The Mark Harvey Group from 1971. Visit:  Mark Harvey Group .  Bloom can also be heard on the acclaimed compilation CD The Boston Creative Jazz Scene 1970 - 1983 (Cultures of Soul, 2016), including Mark Harvey’s essay on the avant-garde jazz scene  in Boston.

Visit Bloom's bio on the Jazz History Database here: http://www.jazzhistorydatabase.com/archives/peter-h-bloom/

Peter H. Bloom serves as contributing editor for Noteworthy Sheet Music.  His arrangements and compositions are available on the NSM website. Visit Noteworthy Sheet Music.

 Recordings:  An extensive discography comprises 45 recordings for labels including SONY Classical, Dorian, Leo (one of the world’s leading adventuresome music labels), Newport Classic, 9Winds, and others.  Peter H. Bloom and pianist Mary Jane Rupert (The Duo “2”) are featured on two discs from Navona Records showcasing music by Elizabeth Vercoe:  Butterfly Effects (“stunningly beautiful” – Cinemusical) and Kleemation and Other Works (“outstanding in every respect, an artistic masterwork” – IAWM Journal).  Bloom was executive producer and soloist in D.C. Hall's New Concert and Quadrille Band's recording Grand Concert!,  an award-winning CD of concert and salon music heard in 19th century America, praised by Gramophone: "Clean playing and careful ensemble are the keynote...Hall's Band meets the challenge with precision and spirit."  Bloom is also featured on another stellar Hall's Band recording Union and Liberty (music of the American Civil War, Dorian/Sono Luminus), rated 5-star by Stylus Magazine ("engineered with splendid sound, Union & Liberty is an unforgettable recording.” )  Other recordings include Measure for Measure: Music of Shakespeare's Plays (Americas Musicworks ), Take Me Out to the Ballgame (music of baseball 1858-1913, with mezzo-soprano D'Anna Fortunato on SONY Classical), and Amoroso: The Heartbeat of Brazil (Boston Musicworks), to name a few.. Bloom also appears on 15 CDs by The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra, including American Agonistes on Leo Records ("a stunning hour of music that is in turn beautiful, poignant and raucous" -- Billboard.com).  He is featured on A Rite for All Souls (The Mark Harvey Group, on Americas Musicworks) and appears on the compilation CD The Boston Creative Jazz Scene 1970 - 1983 (Cultures of Soul, 2016).

More about D. C. Hall's New Concert & Quadrille Band, Grand Concert, Music Heard in 19th Century America
More about  Union & Liberty, Music of the American Civil War
More about  Measure for Measure: The Music of Shakespeare's Plays
See Peter H. Bloom's Discography.
 
Education:  Mr. Bloom holds an MM with distinction in flute performance from New England Conservatory and a BA (philosophy) from Boston University.   He pursued performance studies at Hochschule Mozarteum, Salzburg; Longy School of Music; and Aston Magna Institute.  He studied with Robert Willoughby, Stephen Preston, Sandra Miller, James Pappoutsakis, Carol Epple, and David Hart and performed in the master classes of Karl-Heinz Zöller, Walfrid Kujala, Frans Brüggen, Bartold Kuyjken, Robert Stallman, Betty Bang Mather, Wilbert Hazelzet, and others.  He studied saxophone with Tony Viola and jazz master Andy McGhee, and participated in workshops with avant-garde composer John Cage and jazz notables Sam Rivers and Karl Berger as part of the Creative Music Studio sessions in Manhattan.

Photos:  Mongkol Chayasirisobhon,  Erlyn Ordinario,  John P. Campbell, Susan Thompson, Heloise Tanglewood, Benjamin Bloom