Frank Peterson (born 20 December 1963) is a German music producer known for his work with
Enigma and artists such as
Sarah Brightman
Sarah Brightman (born 14 August 1960) is an English classical crossover soprano singer and actress.
Brightman began her career as a member of the dance troupe Hot Gossip and released several disco singles as a solo performer. In 1981, she made ...
,
Ofra Haza
Ofra Haza (; 19 November 1957 – 23 February 2000) was an Israeli singer, songwriter, and actress, commonly known in the Western world as " the Madonna of the East", or "the Israeli Madonna". Her voice has been described as a "tender" mezzo-sop ...
,
Gregorian, Princessa, and
Andrea Bocelli
Andrea Bocelli (; born 22 September 1958) is an Italian tenor. He rose to fame in 1994 after winning the newcomers' section of the 44th Sanremo Music Festival performing " Il mare calmo della sera".
Since 1994, Bocelli has recorded 15 solo st ...
on his first international album, ''
Romanza
''Romanza'' is the first compilation album by Italian tenor singer Andrea Bocelli, released internationally in 1997.
Although a compilation, ''Romanza'' is considered Bocelli's breakthrough album and is his most commercially successful, topping ...
''.
Peterson was born in
Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
. 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 (, ; born 18 May 1957) is a Romanian-German musician, singer, songwriter, composer, and record producer. He gained worldwide fame as the founder and musician behind the musical project Enigma, which he formed in 1990.
Cretu began ...
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 (; ; ; #Names and pronunciation, see below) or Iviza is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is 150 kilometres (93 miles) from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of th ...
. While there, he became involved with Cretu's new project,
Enigma, 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 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 Hertz, Hz to A5 in Choir, choral ...
Sarah Brightman
Sarah Brightman (born 14 August 1960) is an English classical crossover soprano singer and actress.
Brightman began her career as a member of the dance troupe Hot Gossip and released several disco singles as a solo performer. In 1981, she made ...
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 plainsong, plainchant, a form of monophony, monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek language, Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed main ...
arrangements of popular songs. Peterson's inspiration, as he stated in an interview, was the approaching new
millennium
A millennium () is a period of one thousand years, one hundred decades, or ten centuries, 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 ...
and its spiritual aspect.
In 1997, Peterson collaborated with Israeli singer
Ofra Haza
Ofra Haza (; 19 November 1957 – 23 February 2000) was an Israeli singer, songwriter, and actress, commonly known in the Western world as " the Madonna of the East", or "the Israeli Madonna". Her voice has been described as a "tender" mezzo-sop ...
, producing her final studio album, ''
Ofra Haza
Ofra Haza (; 19 November 1957 – 23 February 2000) was an Israeli singer, songwriter, and actress, commonly known in the Western world as " the Madonna of the East", or "the Israeli Madonna". Her voice has been described as a "tender" mezzo-sop ...
'', that same year.
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 c ...
, 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
heycease 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 Studio*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peterson, Frank
1963 births
Living people
Musicians from Hamburg
German record producers
German keyboardists
Enigma (German band) members