Peter Witte

Peter Witte serves as dean of the Conservatory of Music and Dance at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

During his tenure UMKC's conservatory has established and renewed partnerships with a broad range of artistic, educational, and civic organizations, including a performance at (le) poisson rouge in New York City, annual performances at the new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts and the historic Folly Theater in Kansas City, and international relationships with the conservatories in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Hongzhou, China.

Previously, Mr. Witte served as chair of the Department of Music at Kennesaw State University in metropolitan Atlanta, a position he held from 1999 to 2008. At KSU, Mr. Witte helped plan and open the Bailey Performance Center, hailed as "a beaut" by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and now the home of annual residencies by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

Committed to arts education and arts in communities, Mr. Witte has led performances in Carnegie Hall with the National Wind Ensemble and with the Atlanta Wind Symphony, with whom he served as Music Director for seven years. Prior to his conducting and administrative careers, he performed as an orchestral horn player with ensembles including the Atlanta Opera, the Toledo Symphony, the Windsor Symphony, and in summer festivals in Grand Tetons, and in Graz, Austria.

A recent member of Kansas City's Mayor's Task Force for the Arts, Mr. Witte serves on the Commission on Accreditation and as a visiting evaluator for the National Association of Schools of Music. Additionally, he is past-president of the board of the Youth Symphonies of Kansas City, president of the Missouri Association of Departments and Schools of Music, and chair of the Board of Governors for the Alumni Society of the School of Music, Theatre and Dance at the University of Michigan.

Mr. Witte earned Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in performance, and Master of Music in conducting degrees from Michigan. He studied horn with Louis Stout, Lowell Greer, and Bryan Kennedy; musicianship with Marianne Ploger; and conducting with H. Robert Reynolds, who remains a particularly close mentor.