Peter Shaw

Steve Jobs hired Scott to direct Apple's famous 1984-flavored Super Bowl ad that same year promoting the new MacIntosh. Seventeen years later, Peter was on location in Richmond, Virginia, with Anthony Hopkins, Julianne Moore, and Gary Oldman, filming the Ridley Scott-directed Hannibal, a picture which grossed over $165 Million in the USA alone and was the sequel to the 1991 Hopkins starrer The Silence Of The Lambs. It happened with Trans-Siberian Orchestra, with whom Peter sang for four seasons. TSO is a Multiplatinum Grammy Nominated Christmas Rock Opera. To date it's one of the most successful holiday touring acts in the world, and has sold more than 7 Million albums. Rolling Stone has TSO at the top of the charts from Nov. When TSO informed Shaw that the band's tour that year was moving to huge arenas like Boston Garden and Madison Square Garden from the concert halls they had been working, he knew that one of his early dreams was fast coming true. He would play sold-out shows with TSO for four years, often sharing the stage with lifetime musical heroes/legends such as Joan Jett {her every first appearance at Madison Square Garden}, Roger Daltrey, and Mott the Hoople frontman Ian Hunter. TSO is not an orchestra in a conventional sense, but a rock band conceived by New York native Paul O'Neill in the late 1990s along the lines of high-concept British artists O'Neill had grown up on, such as Pink Floyd, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and rock operas such as the Who's Tommy and the Andrew Lloyd Weber-Tim Rice smash Jesus Christ Superstar. O'Neill, teaming with musical collaborators Robert Kinkel, Jon Oliva, and Al Pitrelli and with major label support from Atlantic Records, further conceived of a pyrotechnic stage show. Peter Shaw was hugely influenced by his TSO experience and the opportunity to work with these industry pioneers night after night, and fans all over the world thrilled to Shaw's performances. It had all begun for Peter in Houghton/Hancock, Michigan, a city of a few hundred, except during college months, Michigan Tech. where Shaw's father studied engineering for 4 years and graduated located in one of the northernmost parts of the United States, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The family moved when Peter was very young to several tiny cities in Michigan. before landing in Cheboygan, on a 17,536 acre lake. Mullet Lake. Shaw spent his summers swimming and working for his father driving bulldozers and dump trucks for his construction company. His father wanted Peter to become an engineer like he was. But that wasn't to be. There was a much bigger calling for this small town boy. He was geographically closer to Canada than he was to the big cities of the USA, and Canadian singers and songwriters including Gordon Lightfoot, Neil Young, and more recently Bryan Adams became some of Peter's countless musical influences, which also include artists as diverse as Marilyn Manson, Al Jarreau, the Eagles, and Seal. Thats as diverse as an Artist like Shaw could throw into one sentence, as he laughs, 'I'd have to see Marilyn Manson on stage with Al Jarreau' he laughs. In high school, Shaw played the challenging part of Judas in the school production of Jesus Christ Superstar, and knew then and there that rock music and theater would be huge parts of his life. A game changer, that came out of the blue, when a teacher pulled Peter aside and said "you have a thing with music, you ever thought about following that, instead of agriculture like most of Cheboygan's students. Shaw took Dale Reiger's advice. He applied to the music departments of the University of Michigan, Indiana University, and Syracuse University, and chose Syracuse. After Syracuse, Shaw moved to New York and a quick stop back out in Los Angeles. It doesn't hurt that Peter somewhat resembles both Kevin Costner and Brad Pitt, so he was able to land modeling gigs between auditions for acting and singing roles. While in Los Angeles, He was up for 'River Runs Thru It" auditioned with Robert Redford. For more than a year, Shaw has also connected with an investor from New Jersey who works in the engineering business and has been extremely supportive of Peter's various projects. The Michigan native sees his musical direction as starting in Pop and Rock, but like crossover artists such as Peter Gabriel, Darius Rucker, and Kid Rock, it will appeal to fans of countless radio genres.