Peter Mintun

A fourth generation Californian, Peter Mintun is one of four children of a Berkeley physician and nurse. On the piano he has played by ear since the age of three. Piano lessons were taken from age seven to fourteen. A steady job as accompanist to Berkeley social dancing club Claremont Teens lasted from age twelve to nineteen. Still a teenager, he accompanied stage shows, Alameda Little Theater, Contra Costa Civic Theater, Berkeley public school productions. Between 1967 and 1972 he accompanied silent film series at University of California (Berkeley), Stanford University (Palo Alto), Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco) and Merritt College (Oakland). Mintun accompanied silent comedies at New York's Film Forum on the occasion of their 25th anniversary week in 1995. In 1970 Mintun became pianist for legendary San Francisco drag troupe The Cockettes, where he helped shape the style and repertoire of the shows. He quit the troupe just before the group's ill-fated New York debut. Mintun beg