Peter Buffett

Peter Andrew Buffett (born May 4, 1958) is an American musician, composer, author and philanthropist.

With a career that spans more than 30 years, Buffett is a Regional Emmy Award winner, New York Times best-selling author and co-chair of the NoVo Foundation.

He is the youngest son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett.

Buffett began his musical career in the early part of the 1980s in San Francisco, California.

After dropping out of Stanford University, he used the proceeds of his inheritance from his grandfather to pursue a career in music.

He recorded and produced albums for local talent.

His big break came when a neighbor introduced him to his son-in-law who needed ad tunes for a newly conceived station, MTV.

The music channel became a cultural phenomenon in the 1980s.

He also was hired by ad agencies to compose commercials and logos - including CNN, which like MTV was also new to cable television at the time.

Buffett decided to transition from ad to music and he decided that a way to do that is to get a record deal based on movie scores.

As new age music was popular in the mid-1980s, he was able to secure one.

Narada Productions, a new-age music recording company, signed Buffett to a recording contract.

In 1987, Buffett debuted with Narada, releasing an album entitled The Waiting.

His second album, One by One, was inspired by Evan S. Connell's book "Son of the Morning Star".

In 1989, Buffett moved to Milwaukee, home of Narada Productions and closer to his childhood home in Omaha, Nebraska.

Buffett would release two more albums with Narada: Lost Frontier and Yonnondio.

While with Narada, Buffett had his first major success scoring the "Fire Dance" scene in the film Dances with Wolves.

The film score, composed by John Barry, won the Academy Award for Best Original Score.

Barry would later invite Buffett to collaborate with him again, this time at the Abbey Road Studios in London.

Buffett contributed the Indigenous soundscapes to the film, and went on to compose two songs for the soundtrack of The Scarlet Letter.

After the release of Yonnondio, Buffett signed with Epic Records.

In 1994, he released his soundtrack for the CBS miniseries 500 Nations, which was produced by Kevin Costner.

In 1996, Buffett produced Star of Wonder, a Christmas CD featuring Celtic harpist Kim Robertson and arranger Eric Segnitz.

Buffett then signed with Hollywood Records, which released his album Spirit Dance in 1997.

In 1998, he entered the pop music realm with the release of Comet9 ' s "Like Mercury" on Milwaukee-based independent label Don't Records, with Buffett producing, writing and playing multi-instrumentalist.

Co-writer and guitarist Tom Nelson and vocalist Susan Zielke completed the studio trio, with Citizen King members D. J. Brooks and Malcolm Michiles guesting on drums and turntables, respectively.

The live band added bassist Josh Warner to the lineup.

In 1999, Buffett's score for the documentary Wisconsin: An American Portrait won a Chicago / Midwest Emmy Award for Best Soundtrack.

Also in 1999, Buffett's Spirit – A Journey in Dance Drums and Song aired on PBS as a highly successful pledge break special.

Combining modern and American Indian dancers with Director and Choreographer Wayne Cilento, Spirit went on to tour through the end of 1999.

In 2004, Buffett worked with Jody Ripplinger and Frank Anderson to create Spirit –The Seventh Fire; an updated version of his earlier show.

It was premiered on the National Mall during the opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in its 800-seat theater tent.

In 2006, Buffett released his first vocal album, Gold Star.

Over the course of the next two years, he released two more albums, Staring at the Sun (2007) and Imaginary Kingdom (2008) on his own label BeSide Records.

In 2009, Buffett began to release exclusive singles through his social networking community on Ning.

He has released over 25 singles since then, including a compilation album of fifteen of the songs.

One Akon collaboration, titled “Blood Into Gold,” debuted at a special event at the UN General Assembly in March 2009 that focused on human trafficking.

The collection, released initially as a USB album, was titled Running Blind (2011) and contained an innovative interactive environment.

During this time he collaborated twice with Grammy-nominated recording artist Akon and once with Grammy-winning artist Angélique Kidjo on human rights inspired songs.

In 2013, Peter released "Already Flown" which was the inspiration behind his New York Times op-ed piece, The Charitable-Industrial Complex.