Frank Peterson (born 29 December 1963) is a German music producer known for his work with
Enigma
Enigma may refer to:
*Riddle, someone or something that is mysterious or puzzling
Biology
*ENIGMA, a class of gene in the LIM domain
Computing and technology
* Enigma (company), a New York-based data-technology startup
* Enigma machine, a family ...
and artists such as
Sarah Brightman,
Ofra Haza
Bat-Sheva Ofra Haza ( he, בת-שבע עפרה חזה; 19 November 1957 – 23 February 2000), known as Ofra Haza (), was an Israeli singer, songwriter, actress, and Grammy Award-nominated recording artist commonly known in the Western world as ...
,
Gregorian,
Princessa, and
Andrea Bocelli
Andrea Bocelli (; born 22 September 1958) is an Italian tenor and multi-instrumentalist. He was born visually impaired, with congenital glaucoma, and at the age of 12, Bocelli became completely blind, following a brain hemorrhage resulting fr ...
on his first international album, ''
Romanza
''Romanza'' is the first compilation album by Italian singer Andrea Bocelli, released internationally in 1997.
Although a compilation, ''Romanza'' is considered Bocelli's breakthrough album and remains his most commercially successful to date, ...
''.
Peterson was born in
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
. As a child, he taught himself to play the piano and keyboard, going on to work in a music store. It was here that he met
Michael Cretu
Michael Cretu ( ro, Mihai Crețu, ; born 18 May 1957) is a Romanian-German musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He gained worldwide fame as the founder and musician behind the musical project Enigma, which he formed in 1990.
Cret ...
and became lead keyboardist for
Sandra, appearing prominently on her hit single "Maria Magdalena".
He was a member of Sandra's band for a few more years, then moved with the Cretus to
Ibiza
Ibiza (natively and officially in ca, Eivissa, ) is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, in Spain. Its l ...
. While there, he became involved with Cretu's new project,
Enigma
Enigma may refer to:
*Riddle, someone or something that is mysterious or puzzling
Biology
*ENIGMA, a class of gene in the LIM domain
Computing and technology
* Enigma (company), a New York-based data-technology startup
* Enigma machine, a family ...
, under the pseudonym of ''F. Gregorian''. Peterson contributed to their first album, ''
MCMXC a.D.'', writing several tracks.
He left the group in 1991 and pursued work on
Gregorian, a musical project co-founded by Thomas Schwarz and Matthias Meissner. The female vocals for this album were provided by The Sisters of Oz—a duo composed of Birgit Freud and Susana Espelleta, who was married to Peterson at the time. Soon after, he met English
soprano
A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...
Sarah Brightman and collaborated with her on her solo albums ''Dive'' through ''Symphony''.
Gregorian was re-invented later on in Peterson's career as a group performing
Gregorian chant
Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed mainly in western and central Europe durin ...
arrangements of popular songs. Peterson's inspiration, as he stated in an interview, was the approaching new
millennium
A millennium (plural millennia or millenniums) is a period of one thousand years, sometimes called a kiloannum (ka), or kiloyear (ky). Normally, the word is used specifically for periods of a thousand years that begin at the starting point (ini ...
and its spiritual aspect.
In 1997, Peterson collaborated with Israeli singer
Ofra Haza
Bat-Sheva Ofra Haza ( he, בת-שבע עפרה חזה; 19 November 1957 – 23 February 2000), known as Ofra Haza (), was an Israeli singer, songwriter, actress, and Grammy Award-nominated recording artist commonly known in the Western world as ...
, producing her last album, ''
Ofra Haza
Bat-Sheva Ofra Haza ( he, בת-שבע עפרה חזה; 19 November 1957 – 23 February 2000), known as Ofra Haza (), was an Israeli singer, songwriter, actress, and Grammy Award-nominated recording artist commonly known in the Western world as ...
''.
Other artists whom Peterson has worked with include
Princessa,
Carolin Fortenbacher
Carolin Fortenbacher (born 26 June 1963 in Hamburg) is a German musical actress and singer. She has had a leading role for five years in the musical ''Mamma Mia!'' in Hamburg.
Career Training
Fortenbacher began training as a make-up and co ...
, Violet, and Sinsual.
Lawsuit against Google/YouTube
On 16 April 2009, ''Billboard'' reported that Peterson had filed a lawsuit at the Higher District Court in Hamburg against Google/YouTube,
claiming that his music videos and other audiovisual repertoire were used illegally. In his lawsuit, Peterson claimed infringement of his copyrights and master rights. He stated that more than 125 million streams of his productions—for which he owns the copyrights and master rights as author, publisher, and producer—had been viewed, for which he never received payment from Google/YouTube.
In the ''Billboard'' interview, Jens Schippmann, senior partner of the law firm Kamin & Wilke representing Peterson, claimed the lawsuit was necessary because Peterson never granted any synchronization rights and adaptation rights to GEMA as part of his membership agreement: "The German legal situation is different to the Anglo-American copyright law because in Germany, the copyright itself will always remain with the author and exploitation rights granted do not exclude the author from any decision regarding synchronization and adaptation because of the author's moral right". Schippmann added, "My client did not assign any synchronization or adaptation rights to Google/YouTube and is therefore entitled to demand
hey
Hey or Hey! may refer to:
Music
* Hey (band), a Polish rock band
Albums
* ''Hey'' (Andreas Bourani album) or the title song (see below), 2014
* ''Hey!'' (Julio Iglesias album) or the title song, 1980
* ''Hey!'' (Jullie album) or the title s ...
cease and desist such usage
ndnegotiate about demanding appropriate remuneration".
Lutz Melzer, junior partner at the firm, said: "The lawsuit includes our demand for injunction, for information, and accounting about the figures of the usage and the turnover, especially from advertising. In addition, we demand for a court decision that any damages incurred by such exploitation have to be reimbursed by Google/YouTube. So far, we cannot exactly compute the amount of such damages without additional information from YouTube, but it seems that the damages will exceed a few million
.S.dollars solely in the Peterson case".
References
External links
Nemo StudioGregorian Music – Frank Peterson bio*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peterson, Frank
1963 births
Living people
Musicians from Hamburg
German record producers
German keyboardists
Enigma (German band) members