Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/68012
A LIFE OF MUSIC: PETER KATER Five-time Grammy nominated pianist, composer, and producer Peter Kater has scored more than 100 television programs (How the West Was Lost) and films (10 Questions for the Dalai Lama), composed for Broadway (The Seagull), and collaborated with the likes of Kenny Loggins and Dominic Miller, but massage therapists will know Kater best for his work creating therapeutic music, including the CDs Essence, Compassion, and, most recently, Cloud Hands. Kater has lived a life full of opportunity and achievement, and while the accolades are wonderful (his most recent Grammy nod came in December for the 2008 release Ambrosia, which was nominated for Best New Age Album; results were not available at press time), this German- born pianist says winning awards and selling albums is not what drives his work. Just like the massage therapists and bodyworkers he caters to, Kater says his work is driven by heart. MAKING FRIENDS WITH THE PIANO It was at the insistence of his mother that Kater began playing the piano at age seven. "I didn't want to, but it was a high priority for her," he says. The structure of classical music was something he trudged through as a child in 1965. "Even at seven years old, I wanted to reinterpret the classical music, but I wasn't allowed to." By the time he was a teenager, Kater was able to play more of the music he liked. It created a shift in his world and his thinking. "It became more personal to me when I could play what I wanted. I could make it my own. The fact that it became a socially cool thing didn't hurt either." With the confines of artistic expression unleashed, Kater found his passion. Music was a grace in Kater's life, especially as he dealt with the death of his mother when he was only 18. "My teenage years were very dark and isolated as she was struggling with disease," Kater says. "Even though I loved her deeply, there was a lot of darkness in her life. When she passed, I had the chance to live my life. All that stress and drama she had in her life just kind of went away and there was a rebirth for me." Kater says the experience not only changed him, it changed his music. "I went from playing Billy Joel and Elton John to listening to Keith Jarrett [The Koln Concert] and Paul Winter Consort. My music became totally internal and it led to my style today." Desperately wanting to leave New Jersey and its memories behind, an 18-year-old Kater set out for Boulder, Colorado, having been lured there by the promise of John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High," and because, as he says, "it was the only place I knew someone." With the mountains reminding him of Germany and a "nature vibe" that inspired him, Kater began making his new life and started turning the bad into good. "There was a lot of responsibility put on me to care for my mother. With her death, I couldn't really be scared. I couldn't give energy to my fears—there wasn't room for them. I had to move forward and quickly. I was left with nothing and didn't want to drown emotionally. Suddenly my music became one of the only things I had." Borrowing time on the piano wherever he could, including the local university, Kater began playing various clubs to earn a living. "I didn't have a car, so I often had to walk or hitchhike." Even though he was frequently on the verge of being out on the street, he A confessed healing arts junkie, Kater says he's always been confused by some of the choices he would hear in the massage therapy room. remembers this as being one of the more rich and interesting times of his life. "I look back at it fondly," he says. A NEW (AGE) PATH As Kater's environment and experience began changing him, it also began changing his music. By 1983, he released his first album, Spirit, on his own label, and soon his recognition began to grow. He says even in making that first album, he never considered it would be the first of many. His motivation had been simply to give voice to his music. Though never formally trained in the genre, Kater soon found himself playing jazz festivals and sitting alongside some heavy-hitters in the jazz world. His third album, Two Hearts, 72 massage & bodywork march/april 2009