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Peter Jay
“I often get asked, ‘What’s the difference between a violin and a fiddle?’ To which, I respond with a quote from one of my favorite fiddler’s, Natalie MacMaster: “a fiddle is dirty and a violin is clean.”
Peter Jay Pezzino will be performing at Gold Canyon United Methodist Church with his band, “The Ceili Band” on Jan. 4, 2015 at 3 p.m. He will be presenting a variety of folk music from different regions of the United States, Ireland and Scotland.
Peter Jay was adopted from Asuncion, Paraguay. The first half of his life, he spent in the small farm town of Millstone, New Jersey where his family raised goats. At the age of five, he was captivated by the sounds of the violin on a PBS broadcast of Jascha Heifetz giving a master class. Soon after, his mother got him enrolled in the Giocoso Strings program, where he began his classical training through the Suzuki Method. At the age of 10, Peter Jay was exposed to the various types of fiddle music at Mark O’Connor’s String Conference. When his family moved to Arizona, he dropped classical studies to study fiddle music for a year. Upon entering high school, Peter Jay traded his violin studies to endure studies on the viola. At the age of 16, he became the Choir Director of Desert Chapel United Methodist Church in Apache Junction. One of the church members invited him to attend a concert given by the Housers, where he was introduced to David Ballard. Slowly, Peter started getting added in to arrangements with the Gold Canyon UMC group, “One in the Spirit.” Getting acclimated to the fiddle again, he switched his musical focus back to violin. Peter Jay has performed in concerts of many genres including the Phoenix Youth Symphony, Arizona Central Regional and All-State Orchestras, as well as joining Tara Houser on stage.
Peter Jay currently lives in Boston, Mass., where attends Berklee College of Music studying violin performance with an emphasis in folk music. Since leaving for Berklee, he has played on stage with Bruce Molsky, Maeve Gilchrist, and has studied with Mimi Rabson and jazz-violinist, Jason Anick. For this Concert he will be joined by a family of musicians who all have their own unique things they bring to the sound of “The Ceili Band.”
The concert is free and open to the public as a free will offering will be received. Everyone is asked to please bring at least one non-perishable food item for the Gold Canyon United Methodist Church Food Bank. The church is located at 6640 South Kings Ranch Rd., Gold Canyon, Ariz., one block north of Hwy 60 (Walgreens on the corner). This is a great opportunity to bring your family, friends and neighbors to hear some great folk music like you have probably not heard before! For more information, call the church at 480-982-3776.
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