Active as a composer, conductor and double bassist, Peter Askim is the Music Director and Composer-in-Residence of the Idyllwild Arts Academy. He has been a member of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra and served on the faculty of the University of Hawaii-Manoa, where he directed the Contemporary Music Ensemble and taught bass, theory and composition. He has had commissions and performances from such groups as the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, the Honolulu Symphony, Orchestra Asia-Japan, the International Society of Bassists, the Yale Symphony Orchestra, the Idyllwild Arts Orchestra, the Portland Chamber Music Festival, and Serenata Santa Fe, as well as by performers such as flutist/ conductor Ransom Wilson, Metropolitan Opera soprano Lauren Flanigan and Grammy-nominated soprano Judith Kellock. His compositions are published by Liben Music Publishers, Discordia Music and the International Society of Bassists, and his music is recorded on the Gasparo and Albany labels.

As a conductor, Mr. Askim has served as Music Director of the Branford Chamber Orchestra and makes frequent guest conducting appearances, including the Wroclaw (Poland) Chamber Orchestra Sotto Voce and the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra and has premiered numerous works, most recently Swansong by Richard Danielpour. He is a frequent recitalist for the International Society of Bassists, was a guest recitalist and teacher at the World Bass Festival in Wroclaw, Poland and was the winner of the 2002 International Society of Bassists Composition Competition. He has also received critical praise as a jazz artist in such publications as Jazztimes, the New York Post and New York Newsday.

Peter studied at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna and holds bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees from Yale University, where he graduated with Distinction in Music. He also holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Composition from the University of Texas at Austin. He studied composition with Dan Welcher, Donald Grantham, Anthony Davis, Jan Radzynski, Syd Hodkinson and David Finko, and double bass with George Rubino, Diana Gannett, Donald Palma, Wolfgang Harrer and Ludwig Streicher.