Pete Malinverni

Born on April 16, 1957, in Niagara Falls, New York, Pete Malinverni grew up with a father employed as a pipe fitter and steam fitter at local chemical plants and a mother who managed the household; both parents actively encouraged his early musical development. Classical piano lessons began at age six under the guidance of Niagara Falls resident Laura Copia, and during high school he performed regularly in the Pentecostal church as well as in local funk and rock ensembles. Within the Niagara Falls public schools, band and choir director-pianist Douglas Monroe provided significant mentorship, while private instruction came from jazz pianist Ron Corsaro. After finishing high school, Malinverni connected with upstate New York jazz figures Don Menza, Joe Romano, and Sam Noto. He completed undergraduate studies at the Crane School of Music in Potsdam before earning a master’s degree at the State University of New York Purchase Conservatory, where he worked on piano and composition with harpsichordist Anthony Newman, whom Wynton Marsalis once described as the “high priest of Bach.” Additional training followed with Sophia Rosoff.

Malinverni moved to New York City in 1981, leading various ensembles of his own and sustaining the longstanding piano-bass-drums trio lineage. His steady trio has featured bassist Dennis Irwin and drummer Leroy Williams, while other rhythm-section partners have included Mel Lewis, Vernel Fournier, Ugonna Okegwo, Todd Coolman, and Tom Melito. Larger groups have brought collaborations with Tim Hagans, Rich Perry, Joe Magnarelli, and Ralph Lalama. As a leader he has issued multiple albums on the Reservoir label. Teaching positions have included New York University, William Paterson University, and the Purchase Conservatory, where Coolman now serves as chair; Malinverni has also offered jazz appreciation courses for non-majors and classical ear-training instruction. Among his distinctions is the Marc Crawford Jazz Educators Award.

Beyond performance and pedagogy, Malinverni has written liner notes and contributed articles to Piano Stylist and Record Review. Composition grants have come from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Meet the Composer Foundation, and he has supplied pieces to the Jazz Composers Collective. Since 1993 he has served as music director at the African-American Devoe Street Baptist Church in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg section, where his regularly performed suites for gospel choir and jazz ensemble draw on the Psalms of David. In 2008 he established the eighty-plus-member Soul Voices gospel choir at Purchase and prepared “The Good Shepherd,” a six-movement concerto for choir and orchestra whose text is taken from the twenty-third Psalm of King David. His wife is jazz vocalist Jody Sandhaus.