Photograph by Lauren Sageer (2025).

Zachary A. Peterson enjoys a varied career as a collaborative pianist, educator, and higher education professional. As a collaborative pianist, Peterson has performed at various higher education institutions, competitions, festivals, and venues throughout the United States including The Riverside Church (New York, NY), the Salt Creek Song Festival (Ashland, NE), the NATS National Music Theater Competition (New York, NY and Chicago, IL), the Lied Center for the Performing Arts (Lincoln, NE), and numerous performances at the Eastman School of Music (Rochester, NY). He has collaborated with artists such as Z. Randall Stroope, Sidney Outlaw, Kathryn Cowdrick, Andrew Polec, Max Chernin, Michael Maliakel, Analisa Leaming, Brian Vu, Nathaniel Sullivan, Brady Allred, Nathan Mertens, Jared Wallis, Crystal Sellers Battle, Paulina Swierczek, and others. Peterson has participated in numerous master classes led by distinguished artists and pedagogues, among them Renée Fleming, David Aronson, Matthew Haimovitz, Jake Heggie, and Gene Scheer. 

An avid Musical Theatre specialist, Peterson has served as a keyboardist/pianist and music director for numerous musical theatre productions and is regularly engaged as a staff pianist for performances and projects associated with the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music’s Lotte Lenya Competition. He has co-presented with James McQuillen on playing musical theatre for classical pianists at the International Keyboard Arts Society’s CollabFest. Peterson holds a part-time faculty appointment in the Arthur Satz Department of Music of the University of Rochester where he teaches undergraduate coursework in musical theatre.

As the Associate Director of Graduate Advising and Services at the Eastman School of Music, Peterson acts as the primary resource for students and faculty regarding issues of graduate programs of study and student success. In this role, he provides holistic advising and support for all graduate students, serves as Eastman’s CARE Network Liaison, and coordinates with Valley Manor and River Edge Manor for their respective Artist-in-Residence programs and recital series. He has served as a co-chair for the planning committee for the University of Rochester’s Graduate Student Appreciation Week and as a co-chair of the Rochester Regional Case Managers Group. His research interests include musician identity development, the socialization of music students, and admissions practices in music higher education. He has presented various workshops on trauma-informed practice in higher education and will co-present on college music admissions practices with Danielle Arnold at Context Conference 2025, a conference centered around reimagining the future of music education, advocacy, performance, and research.

Zachary A. Peterson is pursuing a doctoral degree in higher education at the Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development of the University of Rochester. He previously completed a Master of Music in piano accompanying and chamber music under the guidance of Jean Barr at the Eastman School of Music. He holds a Bachelor of Music in collaborative piano and voice performance from Hastings College, where he studied with Ruth Moore (collaborative and solo piano) and Hillary Watter (voice).