San Diego Best of 1984 San Diego Newsline Newspaper
San Diego Reader’s Best of 1988 Best Local Musician
San Diego Entertainer Magazine’s Best of 1986 Best Jazz Act
San Diego Entertainer Magazine’s Best of 1988 Musician’s Choice
San Diego Music Awards 1994 Best Pop Jazz Group (Blurring the Edges)
San Diego Reader’s Best of 2000 Poll Best Jazz Artist
San Diego Music Awards 2000 Best Mainstream Jazz Artist
San Diego Reader’s Best of 2003 Poll Best Jazz Artist
San Diego Music Awards 2004 Best Jazz Artist
San Diego Music Awards 2007 Best Jazz Artist
2009 Encinitas and Mizel Family Community Grant Presenting PS String Consort and Cole Porter/George Gershwin Concerts
2010 New Jazz Works Grant Chamber Music America
2011 Encinitas and Mizel Family Community Grant Presenting PS String Consort and Vocal group “Calling Me Home Suite”
2013 Encinitas and Mizel Family Community Grant Presenting PS Latin Jazz Celebration and PS Brasil 2013 concerts
2014 San Diego Community Enhancement Grant Presenting PS Plays Cream
San Diego Music Awards 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award
San Diego Music Awards 2018 Best Jazz Album (Planet Cole Porter) Award
2018 New Jazz Works Grant Chamber Music America
2024 inducted into the San Diego Music Hall of Fame San Diego Music Hall of Fame

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peter is inducted into the San Diego Music Hall of Fame (November, 2024)

Peter is awarded the Chamber Music America 2018 New Jazz Works grant to compose a new major piece!

Peter is featured (7 page spread) in the premier surf magazine The Surfer’s Journal July 2018 issue!

(lick below to read the whole thing)


Peter is Awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2015 San Diego Music Awards Event (October, 2015)

Here I am in 2015 accepting the Lifetime Achievement Award!

Here I am in 2015 accepting the Lifetime Achievement Award!

Then I gave a speech and talked about what a great life playing music is.

Then I gave a speech and talked about what a great life playing music is.

Then I got to play my guitar and that was the easy part!

Then I got to play my guitar and that was the easy part!

Check out this page for more photos, articles, and info on the wonderful experience of the 2015 awards event.

Peter winning the award for “Best Jazz” at the 2000 San Diego Music Awards event. It looks like I’d been in a cave for fifteen years writing music and I emerged just to accept the award. But then again, I always look like that.

Peter is the Honored Musician at the Museum of Making Music’s Evening of Note (June, 2006)

Peter and Sammy.

Every year the Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad, California holds a fundraiser event in which they honor 2 musicians of note. For 2006 they honored me and Sammy Nestico. The evening included a dinner and then a presentation that highlighted each of our careers including a video with photos and dialog detailing the whole ride. Pretty incredible! We then were given awards and each made acceptance speeches. That was a first for me—semi high drama. I then played three solo guitar pieces and then started to ease into the evening. This event was a real milestone for me. A highlight were some of the classic stories Sammy told about his life in the music business. My favorite one was the time he had to sub for another composer writing some background music for a T.V. show. The producers loved what he wrote and they let the regular composer know this. The regular guy asks Sammy what he did and Sammy said, “I’m not sure if what I wrote even fit with what was going on in the footage but I just wrote something pretty. They’ll love you as long as you write pretty.”

The invitation and the award sculpture that they gave us.

Peter and Stefanie along with Sammy and his wife.

Peter, Sammy and the big boys of NAMM. This is about as dressed up as I can get.