Biography

Peter Marsh, adjunct professor in the strings department at USC’s Thornton School of Music, was first violinist of the Lenox Quartet (1957–75), “one of the finest quartets this country has yet produced” (New York Times). Subsequently, he was first violinist of the Philadelphia, Berkshire, Sequoia, Southwest Chamber, and Pacific String Quartets. Marsh was a member of the Picasso Trio (violin and viola), the Palo Verde, Amici, and Rio Trios. As concertmaster, he played for the Seattle Symphony, Seattle Opera, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Colorado Festival Orchestra, and California Chamber Symphony. Chamber music collaborations have included Leon Fleischer, Menahem Pressler, Stanley Drucker, John Wummur, and Eudice Shapiro.

Marsh studied with Hans Letz (who taught at Juilliard and was a student of Joseph Joachim). Further studies took him to the American Conservatory where he studied with Scott Willits (Willits studied for seven years with Otakar Sevcik and was his “American Representative”). Marsh’s third teacher was Emanuel Zetlin at the University of Washington (Zetlin studied with Leopold Auer and was the assistant to Carl Flesch at the opening of The Curtis Institute).

In recent years, Marsh has presented masterclasses and concerts in China, Taiwan, Korea, Alaska, and Brazil. Last summer was Marsh’s 12th consecutive year as director of a festival in France (Franco-Americaine Rencontre de Musique de Chambre) where each year he has taken an outstanding USC student chamber group to play with him and with French musicians.  Marsh has served on the faculties of Indiana University (Bloomington), Grinnell College, SUNY Binghamton, CSU Fullerton, California Institute of the Arts, San Francisco Conservatory, and Ithaca College.

As performer and teacher, Marsh has attended the Tanglewood, Aspen, Ravinia, and Fairbanks festivals, to name a few.   As editor of “The Violin Forum” in American String Teacher magazine, he has contributed articles on violin technique. He has served on the music panels of the New York State Council of the Arts and the National Endowment.