PETER DASENT is a composer, songwriter, pianist and music arranger/director.

He has composed music for film and television (including three early Peter Jackson films), led his own ensemble The Umbrellas for 30 years, written songs for kids (Justine Clarke’s platinum-selling children’s albums) and has played piano for the long-running ABC-TV children’s show Play School since 2000.

Peter was born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1954 and learned piano from age 8, discovering the Beatles and other classic sixties pop groups and the music of his father’s collection of jazz 78’s along the way.

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