I discovered Peter Swanson when I was reading the Facebook page of the GR8 IDEAS Symposium and listened to his performance of Joe Natoli’s “Homage and Offspring to the Bumblebee”. Peter is a very talented 16 year old accordionist who deserves recognition for his many accomplishments. I recently spoke to Peter and his mother, Theresa, and you can read below all about his interesting life, contributed by Theresa Swanson.

Peter is a junior in high school who has been homeschooled since kindergarten, spending his life deeply immersed in music. He fell in love with the accordion at a young age after watching his father’s Celtic band, “Wrenwood Sessions” — the very band he now plays accordion for today.

When Peter was just 4 years old, the band’s accordionist and pianist, David Barringer, gave him a 12-bass piano accordion and taught him easy Celtic tunes. David also provided lessons in harmony, chording, and music theory.

Peter was hooked. At age 8, he began formal instruction with accordionist Gene Torigiani, studying with him for five years. During part of that time, Peter and his family regularly made the two-hour trip to Los Angeles so he could take lessons from Janet Hane, conductor and director of the Los Angeles Accordion Orchestra, with whom he studied for three years.

In the summer of 2023, Gene introduced Peter to renowned accordionist Cory Pesaturo after sending Cory a video of Peter playing “Säkkijärven Polka” for feedback. Cory reached out and gave Peter a Zoom lesson, followed soon after by an in-person lesson.

Through these repeated interactions, Peter became fascinated by the digital accordion and its incredible versatility. Inspired by Cory’s playing, Peter developed a deep appreciation for jazz. Seeing an elite musician up close opened his eyes to the endless possibilities of the instrument.

From there, Peter began saving for a digital accordion by doing odd jobs and applying scholarship funds won from the “Cotati Student Stage Scholarship program”—an event at the Cotati Accordion Festival he attends yearly. With his savings and a little help from his parents, he purchased a Roland FR-7x at the festival. A year later, he was able to trade it in for a KORG FISA Suprema.

When Cory passed through Bakersfield, Cory introduced Peter to the local jazz community. Peter soon began visiting the “Bakersfield Jazz Workshop”, participating in their class ensembles. The following summer, Peter spent time studying Cory’s compositions from his album “Unscripted,” transcribing by ear “Crankin’,” “Zora’s Sunrise,” and “Morrison’s Jig.”

In the summer of 2024, Peter began studying music theory and jazz instruction with Jay Smith, a prominent Bakersfield jazz pianist. He also expanded his studies through dual-enrollment music courses at the local community college, where he will participate in the college jazz combos this coming year.

On the recommendation of Cotati Student Stage Director David Noferi and Cory Pesaturo, Peter began studying with Joseph Natoli. Peter was immediately drawn to Joseph’s complex piece, “Homage and Offspring to the Bumblebee,” Intrigued by its jazz harmony and extremely tight syncopation, Peter took on a challenge from his father: if he could learn “the bones” of the piece by a set date, he could attend the “Gr8 IDEAS Symposium” that Joseph had encouraged him to attend.

With help from multiple grants and donations collected by Joseph, Peter attended the symposium. There, he performed Joseph’s piece, two of his own original compositions, and had the pleasure of playing “Crankin” live on stage alongside Cory Pesaturo.

With the symposium behind him, Peter is currently focusing on Free Bass technique with Joseph Natoli. Looking ahead to the coming year, he will continue his classical lessons with Joseph while starting advanced music and jazz theory lessons with Cory Pesaturo.

Peter feels extremely grateful for the incredible musicians, mentors, and teachers who have guided him along the way. The support and encouragement he has received from the accordion community continue to inspire him every day.

I interviewed Peter and find him to be a very focused, determined, disciplined and gifted person. Here is what Peter said: “I am a firm believer that half of playing music is listening to music. It is so incredibly important to let the music you enjoy influence how you play. It may come as a surprise that I listen to much less accordion music than you think, given my life-long appreciation for the instrument.

At a time when I believe the evolution of accordion music has greatly slowed, I take many inspirations from many different areas of music, some of which could be thought of as completely unrelated to accordion. I listen to, and have been heavily influenced by, areas of music such as progressive metal, balkan music, celtic music, R&B, and Pop, all mashed together with jazz to create an artistry that I believe to be truly my own.

Some of my favorite artists and bands include Animals As Leaders, Anderson .Paak, Ariana Grande, Jesús Molina, Sleep Token, etc. And these are all modern artists. Nothing interests me more than what real people are doing right now, today, and the ideas that are being born from people I could potentially meet at some point in life.

I’ve recently realized that one of my greatest joys in life is the sheer thought that at any moment, I could discover new music that could change how I play forever. One of the first things I ask any musician is what they listen to, because when I like what a musician plays, I want to know what influenced them to play like they do.

While I think it’s important to respect, and to understand music of the past, I truly urge young musicians my age (and especially young accordionists) to work to discover new music. And when you find something you want to play like, listen to it over and over again, and analyze what you like about the music. Allow anything you enjoy to change how you play. Being influenced by music is not something you have to try to do. It’s what happens naturally when you listen to music you like. And especially as an accordionist, don’t let yourself be forced to play what people want to hear. Play what you like, how you like, with the people you want to play with.

Another thing that completely changed how I play was when I was introduced to the digital accordion. In the summer of 2023, I was introduced to Cory Pesaturo. That completely changed the course of my musical journey. I would even go as far as to say it started my journey. Before I met Cory, I didn’t really have an idea of who I wanted to be as an artist. Truly, I was still a mere student, simply learning how to play music. Cory introduced to me so many new concepts which were so incredibly foreign to me, that my mind was completely closed to them at first. I remember describing my opinions of a video of Cory playing as, “That’s not even real music!”

Two things especially were brand new to me; jazz, and the digital accordion. Jazz (specifically bebop) was such a foreign language to me, it took around a year for my ears to even begin to open up to it. But I began to realize that this was the type of music that I wanted to play. I always loved to improvise, and come up with my own ideas, rather than playing exactly what was presented to me on a page. And so, I realized that jazz was extremely appealing to me.

And so I visited the Bakersfield Jazz Workshop, the first hour of which was a beginner jam session. I gave it a try, and my suspicions — that I had no idea what I was doing — were quickly proven to be correct. Despite the great encouragement from the workshop, I concluded that I had to get a jazz teacher. And so I began taking lessons from Jay Smith, a notable jazz pianist in Bakersfield. It is with his great teaching that I learned what I know today about jazz.

The digital accordion was foreign to me, yes, but I immediately saw the implications of it. It did not take long before I decided to begin saving up my money to get one of my own. With a bit of help from my parents, I bought a Roland FR-7X at the 2024 Cotati Accordion Festival. That instrument completely changed how I think about accordion, and set me on such a fast path of improvement, it’s baffling to me to think that I bought that accordion a mere two years ago. An instrument that had so much character and versatility, and will always have a place in my heart. I used that 7X for one year, before trading it in at Cotati for the brand new Korg Fisa Suprema, the instrument I play now.

For me, it just goes to show that you should never completely write something off, because three years ago, I had no desire to play jazz or digital accordion, both of which are currently core elements to my artistry. Just writing this now is blowing my mind, looking back at how far I’ve come.”

A little extra info:
In addition to playing the accordion, Peter is a student glider pilot. He started flying when he was 12. When he was 13 he began taking glider lessons from Skylark North Soaring in Tehachapi California. When he was 14 he earned his license as a student glider pilot where he can fly solo but with no passengers. He has also been working for Skylark for 2 years in exchange for flight lessons and flight time as a line crewman. He is currently studying to be a licensed glider pilot and hopes to accomplish that this year.

For further information:
peterswanson100@gmail.com