About the composer

Described as someone who creates music “at a high level, way beyond his years”, Peter Giulio Mainetti is an emerging composer whose works have received numerous accolades at various local, statewide, national, and international levels. His music blends tonal traditions with influence from 20th-century classical music, while also incorporating elements of jazz, heavy metal, video game soundtracks, and various world musics. Peter enjoys writing for a wide range of instrumentation and has been commissioned by many student and professional ensembles, including Harold Rosenbaum and the New York Virtuoso Singers, the Talea Ensemble, and the OTR Quartet, among others.

An adept performer, Peter has garnered international status for both his compositions and his playing. His 2023 composition, “Octoot” has a scheduled performance in 2025 by Canadian ensemble Island Chamber Winds. In 2022, he attended the InterHarmony International Music Festival to study composition and piano. In 2023, he joined Gamelan Yowana Sari (GYS), a New York-based Balinese gamelan ensemble where he learned how to play Balinese music on traditional instruments. GYS has toured and performed at renowned music festivals and venues, including a trip to Bali, Indonesia in August 2024, where the ensemble recorded three newly-commissioned pieces by American composers Michael Gordon, Evan Ziporyn, and Kyle Miller.

Peter is a Macaulay Honors College graduate who received his BA in Music from the Aaron Copland School of Music at CUNY Queens College. He currently studies music composition at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music with Douglas Knehans.

Born in Long Island, New York in 2001, Peter Giulio Mainetti is an emerging composer whose works have been recognized at national and international levels. From a young age, Peter has been described as someone who creates music “at a high level, way beyond his years”, with “a unique ability to develop his ideas at the piano and transform them into colorful orchestrations”. He has received numerous accolades for his works at local, statewide, national, and international stages, including being a recipient of the 2019 Otto Kahn Award from the Friends of OHEKA foundation, a multi-time recipient of the Long Island Composers’ Alliance Arlene Diamond Award, a multi-time selectee for the New York State School Music Association All-State Composition Competition, a National Association for Music Education Student Composer Competition finalist, and a finalist for the American College of Musicians International Piano Composition Competition, among others.

Peter enjoys writing for a wide range of instrumentation and has been commissioned by many student and professional ensembles, including Harold Rosenbaum and the New York Virtuoso Singers, the Talea Ensemble, the OTR Quartet, Island Chamber Winds, Ictus Novus, the Worcester Chamber Music Society, the New York Flute Quintet, Gamelan Yowana Sari, and others. His music blends tonal traditions with influence from 20th-century classical composers, particularly Bartok, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, and Prokofiev. Peter also incorporates elements of jazz, heavy metal, video game soundtracks, and various world musics into his works, keeping an open ear and continuously bringing his evolving inspirations and influences to life.

An adept performer as well, Peter has garnered international status for both his compositions and his playing. His 2023 composition, “Octoot” has a scheduled performance in 2025 by Canadian ensemble Island Chamber Winds. In 2022, he attended the InterHarmony International Music Festival to study composition with Steven Sacco and piano with Christina Long. In 2023, Peter joined the Queens College-based Gamelan Yowana Sari (GYS), a Balinese gamelan ensemble comprised primarily of Queens College music students, faculty, and alumni, where he learned how to play Balinese music on traditional Balinese instruments. He and GYS have toured and performed at renowned music festivals and venues, including Bang on a Can’s Long Play and LOUD Weekend festivals, the New York State School Music Association All-State Conference, and the PS21 Center for Contemporary Performance. In addition, GYS travelled to Bali, Indonesia in August 2024 to record three newly-commissioned pieces by American composers Michael Gordon, Evan Ziporyn, and Kyle Miller. In Bali, GYS was mentored by leading Balinese composer I Dewa Ketut Alit and performed alongside two local ensembles, including Alit’s own ensemble, Salukat, as well as Buleleng-based group Eka Wakya Banjar Paketan.

Peter is a Macaulay Honors College graduate, receiving his BA in Music from the Aaron Copland School of Music at CUNY Queens College in 2023. Peter’s former teachers include Frank Doyle, Edward Smaldone, Jeff Nichols, Bruce Saylor, and Steven Sacco. He currently resides in Cincinnati, studying music composition at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music with Douglas Knehans.