Peter Martel

I began my working life with my grandfather on a farm, weekends and summers taking care of animals and tossing hay bales. Adult life began as an architectural engineer and a builder before discovering a love for working with students. I returned to college in my late 20s to study special education.

My sound career started in the '90s occasionally hauling and setting up equipment for my late friend Ken Laroche from the world music ensemble Do’a. Over the years I've provided sound for numerous folk musicians, including John Gorka, Cheryl Wheeler, Cosy Sheridan & Charlie Koch, Jonathan Edwards, Livingston Taylor (brother of James :-) and the incredible a cappella group . I toured the east coast three summers doing live sound for a 10-piece Celtic band from Asturias, Spain.

I've done live sound and recordings for various local schools, choruses, bands, and theater performances, including the Zenith Ensemble, Monadnock Children’s Choir, Monadnock Chorus, Peterborough Players, Raylynmor Opera and the Firelight Theater. I’ve recorded, mixed, mastered, and produced several CDs and other other digital recordings and videos, including numerous projects for the KSC Music Department. I’ve been mentoring KSC Music Technology interns since 2015 and began teaching at KSC in the spring of 2024.

I'm a board member and the sound engineer for the Monadnock Folklore Society, which hosts concerts, traditional English and contradances, songwriting and music workshops, a shape note singing group, fiddle (not violin ;-) lessons, and scholarships for aspiring "traditional" musicians.

I’ve been a builder at least part-time for most of my adult life and I am currently doing a deep energy retrofit and remodel of my house, the house where my father and my sons grew up. You can find me dancing and doing sound most every Monday night at the Nelson Contra Dance, just 20 minutes northeast of KSC.

Trivia: Another KSC Music Dept. professor and I were the first State Wresting Champions from Conval HS in 1973.