Conductor, composer, arranger, pianist, Peter Mansfield is a native Bostonian, having majored in music at Harvard College where he studied with Eliot Forbes, Luise Vosgerchian, Ivan Tcherepnin and F. John Adams. 

His career began while an undergraduate at Harvard, where he arranged for, and eventually directed the world-famous Harvard Krokodiloes. He would go on to arrange over 70 songs for the group, many of which are still an integral part of the Kroks' repertoire. 

Following graduation, Mr. Mansfield began a tenure as Music Director, Arranger, and later, Music Supervisor of the renowned Hasty Pudding Theatricals, an affiliation he still enjoys. It was during this time that he met and apprenticed under acclaimed conductor and Boston Pops arranger Eric Knight. Mr. Mansfield later went on to study conducting with James Yannatos, chairman of Harvard's conducting department, and with nationally prominent Pops conductor and arranger Newton Wayland. It was from Mr. Wayland that in 1981, he inherited the position of Artistic Director and Conductor of Adventures In Music, greater Boston's only professional orchestra series for young audiences. 

Also in 1981, Mr. Mansfield began an affiliation with The Boston Pops Orchestra, where he has worked under maestros John Williams and Keith Lockhart as pianist, arranger/orchestrator, and music coordinator of several Evening at Pops P.B.S. television specials, featuring such artists as Wynton Marsalis, George Benson, Leontyne Price, Tommy Tune and The Big Apple Circus. It was also with the Boston Pops that his original composition "Casey At The Bat" was premiered with legendary broadcaster Curt Gowdy reciting the famous poem. During the 2008 Pops season, Peter Mansfield was the Music Coordinator for the first edition of the Boston Pops High School Sing-Off, arranging and orchestrating Stephen Sondheim's Being Alive from Company for winner Katie Mayhew of Martha's Vineyard. And he arranged and orchestrated a new version of the famous duet One Hand, One Heart from West Side Story, part of the Pops season-long tribute to Leonard Bernstein. For the 2009 season, Peter served as Music Coordinator and Arranger for the Boston Pops "Baseball Night" programs, and he created the arrangement and orchestration for a Boston Pops premier, Howlin' At The Moon- A Moon Tune Singalong for the Apollo 11 Anniversary concerts in Symphony Hall. In 2010, Peter orchestrated 4 songs for the Pops tribute to Cole Porter featuring Broadway stars Kelli O'Hara and Jason Danieley; in 2011 he served as Music Supervisor for the "Mardi Gras in May concerts, in the spring 2012 Pops season, he was Music Supervisor and Arranger for the "Gershwin Spectacular." In May of 2013, he prepared vocalists for the Marvin Hamlisch tribute, as well as The Boston Marathon Tribute in 2014. And in June 2017, Peter served as panelist, vocal coach, arranger/orchestrator and pianist for the annual Fidelty Young Artist Competition, with the winners performing with the Pops in Symphony Hall.

In September of 1988, Peter Mansfield became Conductor and Music Director of Concert On Ice, the first-ever international tour featuring Olympic and World Champion figure skaters in concert with major U.S. and Canadian orchestras, for which he has conducted the orchestras of Atlanta, Dallas, Omaha, Pasadena, San Diego, Seattle, Spokane and Vancouver, as well as the American Symphony Orchestra, the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, the Philadelphia Pops, the National Symphony Orchestra, and in a special national television production in 1995, the Houston Symphony.

Mr. Mansfield served as Pops conductor of the Kansas City Symphony during the 1997-98 season, and he has also guest-conducted Pops programs for The Hartford (several programs in 2003-2004), Milwaukee, New Hampshire and Vancouver Symphony Orchestras, as well as The Hudson Valley Philharmonic. From 2007-2010, he served as Music Director/Conductor of the Great Waters Music Festival Pops Orchestra in New Hampshire, and he made his guest conducting debut with the Cape Symphony in February 2018, with repeat engagements in June 2019 and February 2020.

RECENT PROJECTS

The Cape Symphony

Guest Conductor/Arranger

The Tonys-Broadway's Best!

February 22-23, 2020

Cape Cod Times Review

UPCOMING PROJECTS

Hasty Pudding Theatricals

Arranger, Orchestrator

Feb.-March 2025

New Hampshire Dance Institute

Music Director, Conductor, Arranger, Orchestrator

Event Of The Year

May 23-25, 2025

"In a move that shows the attention to detail that makes Cape Symphony so good, conductor/composer Peter Mansfield was on hand to conduct the arrangement he wrote for Siren Mayhew at the Boston Pops back in 2008. It was stunning."

Gwen Friss, The Cape Cod Times-January 3, 2020

"There are so many things this year we could not have accomplished without your help and guidance, including and especially the two arrangements "Being Alive" and "One Hand, One Heart". We'll look forward to working together again soon"

"You never fail to come through for us, and last night was no exception. What a wonderful presentation. I'm very much looking forward to many more collaborations with you. You are a blessing to The Boston Pops. May we work together for many years to come."

Dennis Alves

Director of Artistic Planning

The Boston Pops Orchestra

August 2008; August 2011

"Peter has long been a fine conductor, and the orchestras I've seen him conduct have appreciated and responded well to his conducting style. He also relates well to audiences, which have responded very warmly. I think his strongest asset is his willingness to bring his programming and arranging skills to his appearances. Orchestra musicians and audiences alike seem to really appreciate his programming, and particularly his own arrangements, which are well crafted, musical, listenable, and show well the talents of the orchestra."

Keith Powell- Orchestra Manager

The Hartford Symphony

June 2004

In other symphonic and classical projects, Mr. Mansfield has served as arranger/ orchestrator for such vocal artists as Evelyn Lear and Neil Rosenshein of the Metropolitan Opera, and in 2005 he began an ongoing relationship as arranger/ orchestrator for Elisabeth Von Trapp, granddaughter of the famous Captain Von Trapp. 

In the theater world, Peter Mansfield has served as music director/ conductor and arranger for several regional professional theaters, including the St. Louis MUNY and the Next Move Theater in Boston. He has also had a lasting and ongoing engagement as Music Supervisor for the Broadway bound new musical Only A Kingdom, which has had regional runs in Roanoke, VA, Winston-Salem, NC and Pasadena, CA, in addition to workshops in NYC and Long Island. For nearly two decades he served the reknowned Theater Division of The Boston Conservatory as Professor of Repertoire, Ensemble and Piano, and in 2009, he was named the Theater Division's "Outstanding Faculty Of The Year" by The Student Government Association. For the "BoCo" mainstage, Peter conducted Brigadoon, Heaven and Hell (a world premier production for which he also served as arranger/orchestrator), One Touch Of Venus, The Full Monty, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Merrily We Roll Along, The Pajama Game, Spring Awakening, Catch Me If You Can, Side Show, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and A Chorus Line. 

 Since 1985 Mr. Mansfield has composed, arranged and conducted music for Jacques d'Amboise and The National Dance Institute in New Hampshire, New York City, Boston, Maine and Vermont . He has also composed music for the PBS television network (the main title theme to the popular series "The Victory Garden"), as well as Champion Sportswear and Elizabeth Taylor Perfume television advertisements, and in 1996 he adapted, composed, arranged and performed the full soundtrack to a CD-ROM multi-media documentary on the life of Abraham Lincoln, released worldwide jointly by Simon and Schuster publishers and Sunburst Communications.