Peter Gordon is an American composer, producer and orchestrator from New Rochelle, United States. Born in 1951, he works across experimental music and draws on jazz, opera, rock and world music.

Background and education

Gordon studies composition at the University of California, San Diego, where he works with Kenneth Gaburo and Roger Reynolds. He then earns an MFA at the Mills College Center for Contemporary Music, studying with Robert Ashley and Terry Riley.

Work and collaborations

He releases several albums and also writes film and theatre scores. Alongside his own work and his activity with Love Of Life Orchestra, he appears on or composes music for releases by Laurie Anderson, Suzanne Vega, David Johansen, The Flying Lizards, David Van Tieghem, Lawrence Weiner and Arthur Russell.

His opera The Society Architect Ponders the Golden Gate Bridge, created with Lawrence Weiner, has an excerpt issued on the compilation Crosstalk: American Speech Music. He also writes the score for The Necklace, a serial mystery drama presented by The Talking Band, and works on the soundtrack to Desperate Housewives.

Selected recordings

In 2007, James Murphy and Pat Mahoney of LCD Soundsystem use Gordon’s Downtown tracks “Beginning of the Heartbreak” and “Don’t Don’t” to open Fabriclive 36. A 12-inch single on DFA Records is also set to feature remixes by Gordon of “Beginning of the Heartbreak/Don’t Don’t” and “That Hat,” which he co-writes with Arthur Russell.