 For more than three decades, Peter Duchin has been America's preeminent Society, Swing, dance-band leader
performing for the world's most exclusive celebrations. Ever since Peter Duchin's debut in 1962 at the Maisonette in the St. Regis Hotel
in New York City, Peter Duchin and his orchestra have provided the music for White House state dinners and inaugural balls, the openings
of museums and art centers, movie premiers, charity benefits, corporate functions, debutante dances, concerts, and weddings of the rich
and famous.
Peter Duchin's background is a remarkable mixture of show-business and high society. His mother, Marjorie Oelrichs,
was the daughter of a socially prominent Newport and New York family and a celebrated style-setter in the 1920's and 1930's before she
died unexpectedly in 1937, shortly after giving birth to Peter Duchin. While his father was touring with his band and later serving with
distinction as a Naval combat officer in World War II, Peter Duchin was raised by the wealthy statesman Averell Harriman and his wife,
Marie who were close friends of his parents.
As their Godson, he became a skilled outdoorsman and athlete, and he remains an avid fly fisherman to this day.
After the war, Peter Duchin lived with his father and stepmother, Chiquita Wynn Duchin, until 1951, when Eddy Duchin died of leukemia.
In 1956 Hollywood made a successful film about the tragedies of his parent's death, The Eddy Duchin Story, starring Tyrone Power and Kim
Novak. Peter Duchin was educated at Eaglebrook and Hotchkiss prep schools in New England. He went on to Yale, where he received his
B.A. in music and French Literature after spending his junior year at the Sorbonne in Paris. In Paris he also studied composition with
the widow of the distinguished French composer, Arthur Honegger. Back in New York, he embarked on a highly successful recording career
(he has made 26 albums), played a featured part in The World of Henry Orient, a film with Peter Sellers and Angela Lansbury, Working
Girls with Harrison Ford, Jade, and Six Degrees Of Separation. In 1962 Peter Duchin opened with his band at The Maisonette which quickly
became the most successful supper club in town. Peter Duchin ended his extraordinary two year engagement in order to organize all the
music for President Lyndon Johnson's inauguration in 1964, after which he and his band went on the road for their first national tour.
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