Lisa Pegher is a multiple percussion solo artist, drummer, and composer who is known for pioneering percussion as a solo instrument within the orchestral realm and beyond. She has made it her life’s work to present percussion to larger audiences by commissioning, collaborating, and creating new works and performances that bring percussion to the front of the stage. Lisa has been hailed by the Boston Globe as “Forcefully balletic” and by New York City’s The Glass as “More than just a drummer—an alchemist of time, sound, and space, crafting visceral landscapes that penetrate the ears and mind.”
Featured in Symphony Magazine as one of the top six performers of her generation, Lisa has performed as soloist with numerous orchestras, wind ensembles and chamber groups across the globe including the Thailand Philharmonic, Peninsula Festival Orchestra, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, VOX Chamber Ensemble, Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, and many more. She performs concerti and new works by many of today’s leading composers: Kevin Puts, Jennifer Higdon, James MacMillan, Joseph Schwantner, Tobias Broström, David Stock, Derek Bermel, and Mathew Rosenblum, among others. She was recently a featured soloist at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall performing a new chamber work by Richard Danielpour, who consequently composed a new solo percussion concerto for her entitled The Wounded Healer. Lisa has performed in the percussion section with the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music under the direction of Marin Alsop and with the American Composers Orchestra in New York City. She has been a featured guest artist at the Monadnock Music Festival, at the Best of the West festival in Colorado, and the Percussive Arts Society Conventions, and has performed and taught in numerous venues across the globe, presenting unique solo percussion shows and masterclasses.
Currently Lisa has been spending time composing her own original works for amplified acoustic instruments, electronics, and live animation. Her most recent multimedia project, Minimal Art: Imaginary Windows was released in 2010. A drummer at heart, Lisa recently founded her own collaborative avant-garde band Controlled Chaos, and has been the drummer/percussionist for many indie-rock, avant-jazz, and cross-genre bands throughout her career. She has recorded on labels including AKM Productions, BMOP/sound, Albany, and her own label, Lisa P. Music Productions.
Lisa currently resides in Brooklyn, New York City. She endorses and is supported by Evans Drumheads, Marimba One, Black Swamp Percussion, and Matt Nolan Custom Cymbals/Metal Works.