Peter Lieberson

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Peter Lieberson (born 25 October 1946 in New York City) is an American composer. His mother Brigitta was a ballerina and choreographer also known as Vera Zorina and his father Goddard Lieberson was president of Columbia Records.

Peter Lieberson studied composition with Milton Babbitt, Charles Wuorinen, Donald Martino, and Martin Boykan. After completing his musical studies at Columbia University, he left New York in 1976 for Boulder, Colorado to continue his studies with Chogyam Trungpa, a Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhist master. Lieberson next moved from Boulder to Boston to direct Shambhala Training, a meditation and cultural program, and attend Brandeis University from which he received a Ph.D. From 1984 to 1988 he taught at Harvard University. He then became international director of Shambhala Training in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Since 1994 Peter Lieberson has devoted his time entirely to composition. He was married to the late mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson for whom he wrote Rilke Songs and Neruda Songs. The Neruda Songs have met with exceptional praise and have become one of the most popular recorded works in recent years. Upon release, it debuted at number two on Billboard's classical chart. On December 30, 2006, National Public Radio's Weekend Edition/Saturday aired a seven-minute segment on the circumstances behind the recording. After the Eastern time zone broadcast, the Neruda Songs made a rapid ascent up amazon.com's Best Seller list among all music CD's, not just classical. After the broadcast was heard in the Central time zone, then the Rocky Mountain time zone, and finally the Pacific time zone, the Neruda Songs reached number three among all music CD's.