If it’s true that “music makes the world go ’round,” Still River resident Steve Peisch is contributing a lot to keep it turning. For more than 50 years, he has been writing words and music for pop and modern classical songs, and he’s been playing in bands, including his own, Time Traveler. He taught music for 30 years at Lawrence Academy in Groton, and he’s had full recitals of his piano music in Boston. His latest concert in Harvard, which is free, is Tuesday, June 24, at 7 p.m., in Volunteers Hall—“A Concert of Songs by Steve Peisch.”
Peisch modestly claims that your music is good only “if you have really good people singing your stuff.” He has made sure to get those people for his concert. Suzanne Buell of Harvard is an alto who sings country, folk, and rock. From her perspective, it is “an honor to have recorded many of Steve’s original songs over the years.” Buell studied voice and piano at the Boston Conservatory and is a voice coach at Groton Hill Music Center, a featured lead vocalist in several area professional bands, and a soloist in two gospel choirs in Boston.
Maria Ferrante, who had an international career in opera, is a soprano singing modern classical. She wrote in an email, “Peisch’s music is so eclectic that it would keep any audience member bedazzled for hours. He is well-versed in classical and then ventures forth into something toward 21st-century music and then there’s wonderful pop rock. In addition to his inventiveness and playfulness, there are profound moments that move me deeply.”
From left: Suzanne Buell, Maria Ferrante, and Steve Peisch. (Courtesy photo)
Also singing is Annabelle Xu from Boxborough, a sixth-grade student who has studied music with Peisch. He said she has a remarkable ability to read and understand chords and apply what she learns to her singing; he predicts she will have a career in music. For the concert, she is singing two songs that Peisch wrote for children’s theater at a summer camp at Lawrence Academy. In one,“Sad Shoes,” Peisch captures the point of view of kids during COVID—“Why can’t I touch the doorknob?”—when adults were saying things they didn’t understand.
Accompanying the singers will be Peisch and Paul Speidel on guitar, with Peisch singing harmonies for Buell, and Shawn McCann on piano. Peisch calls Speidel a “virtuoso” on electric guitar. He has performed at major clubs, festivals, and private venues throughout New England as well as on area radio shows. McCann is a versatile and accomplished pianist who is an accompanist at Groton Hill Music Center.
Stories in song
Peisch said he identifies with Taylor Swift in saying, “I write what I feel.” An early song (and many since) was inspired by his feelings for his now wife, Kate Lucey, whom he met in high school. His social justice songs, like one about Ukraine, come from his emotions of anger and love. A real-life situation prompts many pieces, including the country song “Focus on the Highway.” In a conversation with a lifelong friend, the friend was wistful about the past, and Peisch wanted him to move on from yesterdays and pay attention to the present, focus on the moment.
Buell, in an email, described her feelings about Peisch’s songs: “The stories in Steve’s songs present vivid pictures in my head as I hear and sing them. They can be about a lost love, reminiscing of special moments in time, or a new couple with hopes and dreams for the future. As a vocalist, I live the story while singing the words and do my best to bring it to life for the listener. To borrow a phrase from one of Steve’s songs, “That is what a song does.”
Part way through college, Peisch dropped out, and in his hometown in Vermont he wrote songs. He had been into classical music as a kid, but in college he turned to the Rolling Stones and the Beatles and joined a rock and roll band for a year. In an “epiphany,” he discovered Johann Strauss and began writing violin compositions. He then went to the New England Conservatory of Music. In 2022 he played pieces of his piano music at a full recital at the Conservatory. His piano music was selected to be performed at Jordan Hall in Boston, and he later presented a full recital of his music at the same hall—to a standing ovation.
Since he’s been retired, Peisch has had “tons of time to write,” and he’s been revising old songs. Some songwriters dry up if they don’t become famous, said Peisch, “but I’m still writing.” He considers himself very lucky to have Buell and Ferrante to express his songs. Buell said of the creative collaboration they have built, “While the chords and melody are in place, there is always room for adding nuances of vocal style and harmonies that take the idea to places neither of us saw coming.”
