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Marcel
Peeters was born in Antwerp, Belgium on September 18, 1926. His first musical
activity occurred when he became a clarinet player in the amateur wind band
"De Werker". In 1945 he became a pupil at The Royal Conservatory of Music
in Antwerp and two years later he graduated with a First Prize in the class
of Jos Van Rickstal. In the meantime he had studied privately with Karel
De Schrijver. He spent his military service in the welfare section of the
army, providing entertainment for the soldiers. He conducted the welfare
orchestra in many shows for the Belgian Troops in Germany and it was here
that he discovered the big-band and light music repertoire. After his national
service he played with different big-bands and toured through Europe and
North Africa.
In 1958 he was recruited by the Swiss radio orchestra, "Beromunster Unterhaltungs
Orchester".
This gave him the opportunity to experiment with his own ideas and theories
and he thus became an experienced composer and arranger. In 1962 he was
asked to join the famous "Hazy Osterwald Sextett" as arranger. He produced
television shows, film and recordings and worked with great stars such as
Catherina Valente, Peter Alexander, Sacha Distel and Henry Salvador. After
working for one year with the renowned dance orchestra of Max Greger in
Münich, Peeters was invited to make arrangements for recordings of the London
Symphony Orchestra with singer Placido Domingo. In 1982 he joined Dolf van
der Linden and the famous Dutch radio orchestra "Metropool Orkestwriting".
His interest in arranging for wind band started when Pierre Kuypers (former
conductor of the Dutch Royal Military Band) asked him to arrange music for
the Royal Military Band and the Philips Wind Band. |