Listen to the complete The Himalaya Sessions performed by Peter Halstead
April 16, 2026
For many on the Tippet Rise team, making art is as integral to their lives as sharing it with others — from painting and photography to piano, trumpet, poetry, theatrical performances, and more. It’s a small group that wears many hats, though none quite so literally as co-founder Peter Halstead. Each summer, as the concert season begins, Peter can be spotted in his signature bucket hat, once possibly a salmon-red and now faded by the sun and years to nearly white.
In addition to co-founding Tippet Rise and the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation, Peter is a pianist, photographer, novelist, and poet. He has published 17 volumes of poems as well as the novel Bug the Great. In recent years he has published A Winter Ride, which combines prose, photos, and poetry to create a sense of the anticipation of winter in Montana. The two-volume series, Tippet Rise Beginnings, describes the personal journey that brought Cathy and Peter Halstead to realize their dream of creating Tippet Rise. Several of Peter’s piano recordings are available in the Tippet Rise Music Download Library, including Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, The Tempest, and as of today, his complete five-album piano series, The Himalaya Sessions.
Recorded in a tractor barn in Colorado’s Vail Valley in 2006, The Himalaya Sessions takes listeners on a journey through music and words, with Peter performing works by a range of composers that each mean a great deal to him. Peter has written program notes on each piece and compilation, organized into five books that accompany each of the volumes.
Volumes I, II, and III of The Himalaya Sessions were previously available on the Tippet Rise website. Completing the series, today’s final two releases include Volume IV, which features works by Bach, Barber, Chopin, Debussy, Selim Palmgren, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Mendelssohn, Strauss, and Schumann, and Volume V, which focuses on American composer Aaron Copland, featuring works that were all written during World War II.
Today’s final two releases include Volume IV, which features works by Bach, Barber, Chopin, Debussy, Selim Palmgren, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Mendelssohn, Strauss, and Schumann, and Volume V, which focuses on American composer Aaron Copland, featuring works that were all written during World War II.
We are delighted to share the complete Himalaya Sessions and invite you to listen, read, and enjoy!
