Rock and Roll High School is an interview series that spotlights some of the most important figures in the history of contemporary music. Interviews by Pete Ganbarg, President of A&R at Atlantic Records.

About Pete Ganbarg:

Pete Ganbarg is President of A&R for Atlantic Records as well as President of ATCO Records, a division of Atlantic. He joined the Atlantic Records Group as Executive Vice President of A&R in late 2008.

A 30+ year A&R veteran, Pete has also held senior A&R positions at Arista, Epic and SBK/EMI. As a publisher, Pete operates Songs With A Pure Tone and Margetts Road Music, joint ventures currently in partnership with Warner Chappell Music. Its writers have achieved multiple gold and platinum certifications over the past several years.

At Atlantic, among the artists and projects that Pete has signed and/or A&R’d are Grammy Award winning artists twenty one pilots, Halestorm and Jason Mraz; platinum and multi-platinum artists Christina Perri, Melanie Martinez, Skillet, Brett Eldredge, Matchbox Twenty & Rob Thomas, Theory Of A Deadman and Icona Pop; as well as the Original Broadway Cast Recordings of “Hamilton,” “Mean Girls,” “Jagged Little Pill,” “Dear Evan Hansen” and the Multi-Platinum Billboard #1 soundtrack album “The Greatest Showman,” the latter two of which he also co-produced.

Pete has received two Grammy Awards: the first in 2017 for his role as producer on the Original Broadway Cast Recording of “Dear Evan Hansen” and more recently, in 2021, for his role as producer on the Original Broadway Cast Recording of “Jagged Little Pill.”

Ganbarg began his A&R career in 1989 at SBK Records. In 1997, he joined Clive Davis at Arista Records, where, as Senior Director of A&R, he conceived and A&R’d Santana’s 30x platinum worldwide, nine-time Grammy-winning album, “Supernatural.”