Biographical Information
Photo credit: K.C. St. John
Pete Ford (1964- )
Originally from rural West Terre Haute Indiana, Adrian College Full Professor of Music Pete Ford earned bachelor's and master's degrees from Indiana State University. There he was mentored in Music Theory by Dr. John Ibberson and Dr. William Denton. He studied composition with David Ott, John Muehleisen, Timothy Kramer, and others, and began his first study of jazz at Indiana State with Dr. John Spicknall. In the late 1980’s he co-wrote and recorded several commercial jingles that played primarily in the Indianapolis market.
Upon moving to Northwest Ohio in 1991 with his wife and fellow musician Shannon Ford (shannonfordwoodwinds.com), he pursued further jazz study with Gene Parker and Mark Kieswetter. Concurrently he gained invaluable experience “sitting in” on piano at former Toledo jazz clubs Rusty's and Murphy's.
Professor Ford has taught music in higher education for over two decades, with the bulk of his experience at Adrian College. While his focus at Adrian is Music Theory, at other institutions he taught a variety of classes including Jazz History and Rock History. Equipped with a "classical" music theory education, these experiences couple with his jazz and popular music performing background to positively and pragmatically inform his present-day teaching and composing.
Pete Ford has composed chamber music for various combinations including pipe organ with saxophone, saxophone quartet, string ensemble, and string quartet. He is the primary musical arranger for the the saxophone quartet Sax 4th Avenue. His choral composition “Nahamasa (a Choral Fanfare for Asa Mahan),” which also includes saxophone and clarinet obbligato, was performed at Carnegie Hall in 2010 by the Adrian College Choir, with Pete Ford at the piano. The Toledo Choral Society has performed his piece “The Night Sky at Christmas Time.” He has authored a series of music theory textbooks, and is also a published composer. He is mentioned multiple times in the Acknowledgements for his contributions to Mark Gridley’s Jazz History text Concise Guide to Jazz. Ford is an internationally-recognized scholar on the music of the late progressive rock keyboardist Keith Emerson.
Ford actively gigs (except during the Covid-19 pandemic) on jazz and rock piano around the Midwest as a freelance musician. He can be found playing keyboards in a variety of musical situations ranging from jazz clubs to planetarium programs to playing keys behind Elvis tribute artists(!).
(On the “Keith Emerson” page of this website is a link to Woody Chenoweth’s doctoral dissertation on saxophone compositions; several pages of this document are dedicated to Pete Ford’s backstory and how that has informed many of his musical decisions.
Also, on the “Theory Professor” page is a link to a short video interview by one of Ford’s music theory students that gives another window into Ford’s musical past).
In August 2019, Ford was invited by members of the Toledo Symphony to participate as a serious composer in the 4(19) festival at the Toledo Museum of Art. This festival featured 19 composers’ works over the course of four concerts (within the area code of (419)). Ford’s works were featured on three separate performances that included Sax 4th Avenue and a string quartet of Toledo Symphony musicians. Most of Ford’s works in this festival explored the intersection between imitative baroque fugal procedures and later musical genres.
Prior to the 4(19) festival in August 2019, Ford was asked about his compositional influences within the (419) area code, and of the festival itself.
“My wife Shannon began her master’s degree as a woodwind specialist at BGSU in 1991. We moved to this area from West-Central Indiana and were positively overwhelmed by the cultural offerings of the 419, not only with “serious” music, but with the thriving jazz scene—although we couldn’t afford to go out very often, it was amazing to know that live jazz—GOOD live jazz—was performed nightly in Toledo, and by what seemed to be an endless parade of great players on every instrument. It was intimidating, but also an opportunity to jump in and learn. I thought I knew something about Jazz back in Indiana, but lessons with Gene Parker completely changed my musical competency for the better.
But jazz is only one facet—the 419 has world-class musicians in every genre. Outside of music, the Metroparks, the Zoo, the Museum, the intrigue of Lake Erie, and the proximity of all that Detroit has to offer (not to mention Canada 50 miles away)—there was no turning back for us.
I am so excited to hear so many works of the other composers with ties to the area—I will try to hear as many performances as my schedule will allow. Looking at the list of composers in these performances, I am truly humbled to be in their company. There are composers in this festival that are respected around the world, yet here they are in Toledo. But there are also talented, creative, thoughtful, innovative and intelligent composers whose works I have not yet heard that are likely very deserving of the same kudos. I can’t wait to hear what they have to offer.
Secondly, to be pretentiously selfish, I cannot lie: I always get a rush hearing others performing notes in the order in which I concatenated and stacked them on paper! Sax 4th Avenue recently recorded many of my jazz fugues at Stone Soup Studios in Maumee, and I am absolutely delighted to hear the same pieces performed live in such an elegant space as the Toledo Museum of Art.
Members of the Toledo Symphony will perform some of my string material. While these pieces have been excellently performed by the Scandia Quartet, each new ensemble and each new performance brings a different nuance and interpretation. I am sure what I hear will be splendid.
Every live performance is absolutely unique. To hear my pieces in real time and knowing that perhaps their soundwaves could be moving the molecules of a beautiful work of glass art or even a Van Gough painting that may be within earshot—in that evanescent moment I feel connected to something eternal.”