Dr. Peter Joseph Zisa is an award-winning performer on the six and eight string guitar. Reviewers and audiences across the U.S. and abroad describe Zisa’s musicianship as “dynamic, sensitive, authentic, inspiring and emotionally expressive”. Peter is grateful for his studies with David Grimes, and with legendary performers Maestro Andrés Segovia, José Rey de la Torre, José Tomas, and Oscar Ghiglia, who have contributed to his musical development.
Early Training and College Years
Peter’s training on guitar began when he was nine years old with jazz guitarist Mike Sparr. After hearing Maestro Segovia perform, Peter turned his attention to classical guitar, studying under Guy Horn, and began performing for audiences when he was thirteen years old. In his college years, Peter performed extensively at universities and music festivals throughout southern California. In 1979, he was awarded first place in the annual Solo Classical Guitar Competition sponsored by the American String Teacher’s Association and was a semi-finalist (only classical guitarist) in the Young Concert Artist Competition in 1983.
Performer
Peter Zisa is an acclaimed classical guitar performer who has performed across the country and abroad for over 50 years. The distinctive quality of his performances has been described by critics and fans as “poetic, moving, exciting, engaging, authentic, powerfully expressive, and musical.” His high performance standard and remarkable stylistic versatility add to his exceptionalness as a performer.
Peter also enjoys the collaborative experience of performing chamber music with outstanding musicians. Peter was also one of the founding members of the Oregon Guitar Quartet (David Franzen, John Mery, Ian Luxton, and Peter Zisa). In these formative years of the quartet, John Mery contributed arrangements of Beethoven and Piazzolla quartets, David Franzen arranged Vivaldi’s Concerto for Four Violins, and Peter composed a set of four compositions for guitar quartet dedicated to each of the members.
In 2007, Peter formed a world music chamber ensemble “Thousand Waves”; this performance group’s repertoire includes the music from the West and East: from J.S., Bach and Mozart, to Django Rheinhardt and Piazzolla, from Michio Miyagi and Tadao Sawai to Ellington, Brubeck, and John Kaizan-Neptune. The members of the group were Yukiko Yamaguchi on koto, LeeAnn McKenna on transverse flute, and Peter Zisa on six and eight string guitar.
In his other musical collaborations, Peter has performed with other notable artists: Grammy-award artists Doug Smith and Janice Scroggin; Grammy-nominated violinist Adam LaMotte; the legendary Brazilian composer and guitarist Celso Machado; vocalist Ida Rae Cahana and Pink Martini; mandolin virtuoso Brian Oberlin; first violinist of the Glinka Quartet Dr. Tatiana Kolchanova; concert masters Mary Rowell and Andrew Ehrlich; Hall of Fame Jazz vocalists Shirley Nanette, Marilynn Keller, and LaRhonda Steele; Jazz musicians, such as Grammy-award winning pianist George Mitchell, percussionist Todd Strait, Jazz shakuhachi musician John Kaizan-Neptune, and pianist Daryl Grant; flamenco dancer Laura Onizuka and flamenco guitarist Mark Ferguson.
Recording Artist
Peter has six CD recordings. His last three CDs were completed over the past three years. Caprices, Dances and Variazioni altraverso i secoli (2017) is a collection of dances, caprices, and variations over the centuries, from the Italian Renaissance to Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. The CD includes three of Paganini’s violin caprices.
Meridional Odyssey (2018) is collection of works from or inspired by music southern hemisphere of the Americas. Works by Augustin Barrios and Manuel Ponce represent notable works from “classical” guitar repertoire. In contrast, works by Baden Powell and Zequinha de Abreu represent highly regarded works of the notable Latin genres such as tango, habanera, choros, and bossa nova. A few works on the CD are by European composers (Iradier, Tárrega, Dyens) whose compositions were inspired by music of the Americas.
Sympathetic Vibrations CD (2018) is a collaborative recording with virtuoso violinist Tatiana Kolchanova. Dr. Kolchanova, a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory of music, was first violinist of the Glinka String Quartet for more than a decade. This CD contains a Sonata for Violin and Basso Continuo (realized by the guitar, arrangement by Peter Zisa), Sonata Concertata for Violin and Guitar by Paganini (performed on 8-string guitar by Peter), and two tangos from Piazzolla’s History of the Tango (1930, 1960), with an embellished guitar arrangement by Peter Zisa. Zisa is currently working on completing two CDs: Meridional Odyssey Volume 2 and Vocal Gems with mezzo-soprano Phoebe McRae (music of Mozart, Handel, Britten, and Gershwin).
Masters and Doctoral Studies
Peter holds a Masters Degree in classical guitar performance and a Ph.D. in Education. Peter’s master’s thesis on Manuel Ponce’s Variations Sur “Folia de España” Et Fugue provides a performance analysis of one of the most influential 20th century works in the classical guitar repertoire. Maestro Segovia, in an interview by Zisa, described Ponce’s Folia Variations as a seminal work which best demonstrated the musical and technical capabilities of the guitar.
Dr. Zisa’s doctorate dissertation – HOW ENGAGED EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING AFFECTS COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS STUDYING MUSIC FUNDAMENTALS (2016) -examined the pedagogic impact of composing activities on the learning experiences of adult community college students. The study investigated whether composing activities would help students better understand and enjoy learning music theory. The study results indicated composing was helpful to adult college students, even those without music training. Ninety percent of the students reported they found composing an engaging, creative, and meaningful experience. Composing turned out to be a powerful motivator among adult students. This was especially noteworthy because 90% of the students had little previous music background. Composing, as a pedagogic tool, is to music theory what writing is to the study of grammar and syntax. There is a paucity of pedagogic materials instructing theory teachers at the community college and university on how to integrate composition in their lessons. In response, Dr. Zisa is currently working on completing a book to help music theory educators create compositional activities that make the learning content enjoyable, fascinating, and creative.
A General Analysis Pertaining to the Performance of Manuel Ponce’s Variations Sur “Folia de Espana” Et Fugue?(California State University, Fullerton, 1985)
Educator and Researcher
Peter is a devoted educator, with a studied understanding of music pedagogy, human development, learning development, as well as advances in neuroscience and the learning process. In his 40 years of teaching experience at the colleges and universities, he has taught classical guitar, music history, music theory, stylistic analysis, the history of Jazz and Rock, ethnomusicology, chamber music, music composition, improvisation, and music interpretation. Peter has taught all levels of education and all ages: elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, colleges, and universities.
At Portland Community College Rock Creek campus, where he served as acting chair for five years, he taught music theory, aural skills, core music history, world music, chamber ensemble, the history of rock and jazz, and music appreciation. Peter initiated the concert series “Experience Music Series” as an extension of the Music Appreciation course, giving students direct experience with musicians from different (musical) cultures, and providing a cultural outreach program for the community of Rock Creek. Rock Creek’s signature concert series to this day remains a standout educational and community outreach.
Author
Over past thirty years, Peter has written more than a dozen books on music. Most of his early publications were guitar method books for teaching guitar at the community college level. In the 1990s Peter wrote a series of music theory textbooks for elementary school (grades 1 – 5), and a music appreciation book for middle school students (grades 6 – 8). While working at Marylhurst University, Peter wrote a series of method books for music therapy and music education programs. In 2018, Peter completed the published guitar teaching method book: Learning the Guitar for Educators and Music Therapists (published by Total Health Publications). In the same year, he published a set of Christmas Arrangements for classical guitar; the arrangements were written at different skill levels.
Learning Guitar: For Music Therapists and Educators
In the fall of 2019, he published the method book Learning the Guitar – Step by Step – for Children and their Parents. This book was adopted and used by the National Award Winning String Project at Pacific University, Forest Grove Oregon, A guitar method for Children and their Parents was, in part, directed toward parents wishing to be involved in their children’s music experience. The inspiration for the book was the role of Peter’s father had in his development as a guitarist and musician. His father, Joseph Zisa, had little music training, so he could not offer precise direction on how to play the guitar. His contribution was in helping Peter learn how to practice. He called this approach: Divide and Conquer. This approach taught Peter when faced with a technical or musical problem, first identify the fundamental (root causes) of difficulty. Solve those first and create achievable goals – easy-to-accomplish steps. This method book approaches the problem-solving process – as directed by a creative experienced teacher – as a tool for greater success. The book provides new and innovative ways to address the most common technical and musical obstacles beginning students (of any age) face in learning to play guitar; such as, creative enjoyable approach to develop solid technical skills on the guitar, learn the names of the notes on the fingerboard, ability to overcome difficulties in reading music, ability to accurately play rhythms in time, improve chord changes, create their own arrangements and improvise.
Learning the Guitar: Step by Step for Children and Their Parents
Recent Music and Educational Initiatives
Connecting the Dots (2020) Music Education Video Series
Peter has begun a new set of music video lessons. These video lessons will cover a wide range of musical topics. Guitar-skill instruction will cover technique, scales, and arpeggios, tremolo. Music literacy and theory instruction will cover note-reading, music theory on guitar, fingerboard theory. Music arranging will show how to take a lead sheet and create a musical arrangement for guitar. Musical Styles presents stylistic templates that can be used in accompanying voice or other instruments on guitar. Musical Styles will include blues, jazz, pop rock, travis-picking, bossa-nova, rumba, gospel, and reggae. These video lessons will also include solo examples of how to utilize and integrate these stylistic accompaniments to create a solo arrangement in a particular musical style.
Video Lesson Series (Lessons for Class Guitar, 2011)
In 2011, Peter completed over sixty instructional lessons in conjunction with a class-guitar method book, Learning the Guitar. These videos are currently available for free on YouTube; a copy of the accompanying book is available by e-mailing Peter Zisa (zisaacademy@gmail.com)
CDZ-Collegium Musica (501-c)
In 2017, Peter established Casa Della Zisa Collegium Musica as a 501(c) non-profit with the mission to advance the appreciation of music and education: “Bringing community together through music and cultural exchange”. Through public music performance and workshops – Music is a Connecting Force that brings community together through array of subjects related to music; i.e., faith, science, art, poetry, literature, history, and culture. Over the past two years, the collegium has hosted over 50 concerts featuring local artists and visiting artists from across the U.S. and around the world (Japan, Germany, Italy, Argentina, Brazil, New York, California, Rhode Island, Michigan, Arizona, Idaho, Washington, Israel, Morocco). The collegium also hosted over 40 workshops on subjects such as cooking, arts and craft, and the visual arts.