Peter McGarr (born May 28, 1953) is a Northern English classical composer.
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Born in Manchester, McGarr studied Music and Dance at Mather College (now part of Manchester University) and is self-taught in composition. For several years he taught steel pan, achieving the Outstanding Performance Award from Music for Youth for his steel band 'Orchestral Steel'. He has received the George Butterworth Award for contemporary music from the SPNM and has been nominated for Music Teacher of the Year, the British Composer Awards, the Paul Hamlyn Awards and the Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship. He has also engaged extensively with musical activities involving the elderly and people with dementia.
He has had performances and commissions from many leading musicians and orchestras including pianist Joanna MacGregor, The Proms, London Sinfonietta, Brodsky Quartet, BBC Philharmonic and Black Dyke Band. His music features in Faber Music's 'Unbeaten Tracks' series,[1] and he was commissioned by Joanna MacGregor to write a 1,000-voice piece for the Bath Festival's 60th anniversary.
His recent commissions include a series of soundtrack pieces for the Edinburgh International Festival and an opera to be premiered in 2013.
Peter McGarr is the only son of Joan McGarr, a school secretary from Audlem in Cheshire and William McGarr, a shipbuilder, coal miner and mouth organ player from Wallsend, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne (both deceased). He was brought up in the Openshaw district of East Manchester.
In 2005 he moved from the city to live on the edge of Saddleworth Moor. As of 2009 he still lives there with his wife, Janet Tye and an assortment of cats and dogs.