Rock & Roll High School is an interview series that spotlights some of the most important figures in the history of contemporary music.  Interviews by Pete Ganbarg.

About Pete:

Pete Ganbarg has been doing major label A&R for over 35 years. He's a 2X Grammy award winning record producer as well a member of the board of directors of the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Pete has held A&R positions at Atlantic, Arista, Epic and SBK/EMI and is currently the president of Pure Tone Records, a joint venture with Atlantic, as well as a senior member of the Atlantic A&R team

As a music publisher, Pete operates Songs With A Pure Tone and Margetts Road Music, joint ventures currently in partnership with Warner Chappell Music. Songs published by Pure Tone include 2024's Grammy winning Record of the Year, "Flowers" by Miley Cyrus as well as hits by Justin Bieber, Maroon 5, Katy Perry, OneRepublic, Lewis Capaldi, Ed Sheeran, Andy Grammer, Lizzo, Beyoncé, and more.

Pete is the recipient of two Grammy Awards for his role as producer on the Original Broadway Cast Recording of Dear Evan Hansen and the Original Broadway Cast Recording of Jagged Little Pill. At Atlantic, among the artists and projects that Pete has overseen are twenty one pilots, Halestorm, Jason Mraz, Christina Perri, Melanie Martinez, Skillet, GAYLE, Brett Eldredge, Matchbox Twenty & Rob Thomas, Theory Of A Deadman, and Icona Pop; as well as the Original Broadway Cast Recordings of Hamilton, Mean Girls, Jagged Little Pill, Dear Evan Hansen, and the multi-platinum Billboard No. 1 soundtrack album The Greatest Showman.

Pete began his A&R career in 1989 at SBK Records. In 1997, he joined Clive Davis at Arista Records, where, as Senior Director of A&R, he conceived and A&R’d Santana’s 30x platinum worldwide, nine-time GRAMMY-winning album, Supernatural. 

Additionally, Pete was named International Music Person Of The Year for 2023 by the music industry organization MUSEXPO.