Peter Madlem has led an eclectic musical life. He began his musical studies at age six with piano and composition lessons. His first orchestral work was performed when he was ten years old.
As a teenager, after winning both the Topanga Canyon and Great Western Banjo & Fiddle contests, he became a much sought after Los Angeles studio musician as a multi-instru- mentalist. This rapidly burgeoning career was cut short by a serious injury to his left hand. Due to the debilitating nature of the injury, physicians informed him that his performing days were over. Undaunted, he travelled to Mexico City, to study with Argentine master guitarist, Manuel Lopez-Ramos at his Estudio de Arte Guitarristico. He completed the rig- orous six-year program in three years, earning the Artists’ Diploma.
He holds both Bachelors and Master’s degrees in Music Theory & Composition and was the founder of the undergraduate and graduate program in classical guitar at the University of California, Santa Barbara where he also taught orchestration and arranging.
He writes without barriers in a variety of musical styles across the spectrum from classi- cal to jazz and popular formats. His compositions and arrangements (including solo works, ensembles, concertos, and pedagogical studies) number several hundred. For the guitar he has composed for such artists as John Williams, Joe Pass, Tim Kain, William Feasley, Segovia, Lopez-Ramos and the LAGQ. His compositions are performed all over the world in such venues as the Sydney Opera House, Wigmore Hall, and the Washington National Cathedral.