The Music

Peter Foley’s award-winning music is known for its originality, sophistication, beauty, and unique choral sound. His songs are harmonically and rhythmically complex, while also being melodic, accessible, and infused with drama and meaning. Peter primarily wrote music for the theater but also for concert, cabaret, television, and film.

Peter’s songs have been performed in concert at Lincoln Center’s American Songbook, Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, the New York Festival of Song, Symphony Space, Town Hall, Joe’s Pub, Feinstein’s/54 Below, and more by many of Broadway’s finest, including Kate Baldwin, Judy Blazer, Merle Dandridge, Jason Gotay, Brian d’Arcy James, Melissa Errico, Manoel Felciano, Marya Grandy, Rebecca Luker, Sally Wilfert, Michael Winther, and BD Wong. 

Music Highlights

Peter’s songs range from intimate solo art songs, to ecstatic, grooving, pop/rock numbers, to large choral pieces with complex vocal arrangements. Here are a few highlights from Peter’s catalog of over 100 songs.

Discover More → Stage Works • Songs • Plays, TV & Film

  • “The first time I heard Peter Foley’s music at a rehearsal years ago, I kept turning to him to say, ‘Damn! That’s sooo good!’ and I continue to think that every single time I hear his magnificent music. He was the real thing.”

    — Joseph Thalken

  • “The music is magnificent. Powerful and urgent but never blatant; melodic but never simplistic; wonderfully various yet seamless in its narrative flow. I am very deeply impressed.”

    — Ursula K. Le Guin

  • “Among the best of his generation at setting lyrics and writing music that evokes character and mood.”

    — Stephen Sondheim

  • “Peter wrote music that is bound by good sense—foundation, logic, structure—but nothing is ordinary. Nothing was created except for music that would reach for emotional, psychological, romantic, poetic and sensual heights. It’s a marvel how he could be both a down-to-earth craftsman and a poet of the highest order.”

    — Melissa Errico

  • “Your music engenders pure ecstasy and enlightenment. You are opening hearts indeed. You’re a genius—and I hope you can admit it.”

    — Eisa Davis

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