Peter Jarvis is an American percussionist, drummer, conductor, composer, music copyist, print music editor and college professor.

Peter Jarvis (b. 1959) in Hackensack, New Jersey, and teaches music at Connecticut College and William Paterson University. His teaching responsibilities include academic classes, percussion lessons, coaching/conducting chamber music, directing new music concerts at Connecticut College and the New Music Series at William Paterson University where he is Director of New Music.

Jarvis composed, orchestrated, arranged and performed music for Moonrise Kingdom, a film by Wes Anderson, which opened the Cannes Film Festival on May 16, 2012. Moonrise Kingdom received a Golden Globe nomination for “Best Score” and an Academy Award nomination in 2013. His involvement in the film as a composer included various individual projects ranging from adding music to a score by Benjamin Britten and composing original music for several scenes. As arranger and orchestrator he worked on music composed by Mark Mothersbaugh and as performer he led a percussion section and provided several improvisations. He has also performed his own solo percussion music for the second, third, forth and fifth seasons of the HBO Series “Boardwalk Empire.” During the third season, his music appeared in seven episodes.

As a freelance musician he has performed as a soloist, chamber player, Broadway musician and as conductor with chamber music ensembles including The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, CompCord Ensemble, The Group for Contemporary Music, Saint Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, The New Jersey Percussion Ensemble (which he directs) and on new music/arts festivals such as the Europe/Asia Festival and the Hong Kong Arts Festival and in orchestras and with choruses. He has performed for PBS, Russian and Hong Kong television. The New York Times has said about Jarvis’s conducting: “. . .[He] did full justice to its rhythmic complexities; Mr. Jarvis and his forces richly deserved the standing ovation they received.”

Jarvis has performed and or recorded with composers musicians such as Milton Babbitt, John Cage and Steve Reich. He is active as a percussionist, conductor and composer in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and elsewhere. As conductor he has appeared with the Saint Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, The New Jersey Percussion Ensemble, Composers Concordance, Ensemble21 and several other groups. He has appeared as guest conductor on the San Francisco Symphony’s New and Unusual Music Series with the New Jersey Percussion Ensemble.

His compositions are published by Calabrese Brothers Music, LLC, Indian Paintbrush Productions, L-T Music Publishing and Subito Music. He is a member of Broadcast Music Incorporated and Chairs the board of Composers Concordance.