After serving 12 years as Associate Principal Cello of the Philadelphia Orchestra, PETER STUMPF became the Principal Cello of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the start of the 2002/2003 season. At the age of 16 he began his professional career, playing in the Hartford Symphony. He received a Bachelor's degree from the Curtis Institute of Music and an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory.

A dedicated chamber music musician, he is a member of the Johannes String Quartet and has appeared on chamber music series at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and Walt Disney Concert Hall, in Cologne, at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and at Casals Hall in Tokyo. He has performed with the chamber music societies of Boston and Philadelphia and at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico as well as the Festivals of Marlboro, Santa Fe, Bridgehampton, Ottawa, Great Lakes, Ojai, Spoleto, and Aspen. He has toured with Music from Marlboro, the Casals Hall Ensemble in Japan, and with pianist Mitsuko Uchida in performances of the complete Mozart Piano Trios. He has collaborated with pianists Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, András Schiff, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Jorge Bolet, Radu Lupu, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and with the Emerson and Guarneri Quartets.

Concerto appearances have been with the Boston Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Boston Philharmonic, the Virginia Symphony, the Vermont Symphony, the Connecticut String Orchestra, the Worcester Orchestra, the Delaware Valley Philharmonic, the Orchard Park Symphony, and the Colorado Philharmonic, and at the Aspen Music Festival. As a recitalist he has performed at the Universities of Hartford, Syracuse, and Delaware, at Jordan Hall in Boston, at the Philips and Corcoran Galleries in Washington, D.C., and on the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society Series as well as Chamber Music in Historic Sites in Los Angeles. His awards include first prize in the Washington International Competition, the Graham-Stahl Competition, and the Aspen Concerto Competition, and second prize in the Evian International String Quartet Competition.

As a member of the Boston Musica Viva he has explored extended techniques including microtonal compositions and given numerous premieres. As a teacher he has served on the cello faculty of the Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford, the New England Conservatory, and guest artist faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music as well as at the Yellow Barn Music Festival and the Musicorda Summer String Program. He is currently on the cello faculty of the University of Southern California.