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A brief introduction to the piano at the age of eight gave Pete the fundamentals of music. In his early teens he joined his junior high school band and took up the trumpet, which he continued to play all the way through high school. It was a great introduction to ensemble playing and the thrill of a good John Phillip Sousa march. During this time he also picked up the guitar, at about age 13, and it was an instant love affair. He took rock n` roll lessons from his sister's boyfriend before moving on to jazz guitar lessons. He joined his first band, "The Voices", at age 18. Shortly thereafter he took a job at an independent record label called "Aria Records". It was during that time that he wrote the hit dance single for Rhetta Huges entitled "Angel Man", which went to #1 on the Billboard Dance Singles Top 80--knocking David Bowie's "Let's Dance" out of the #1 slot. This was followed by the song "Hit on You" written for the r&b group Roundtree, which helped them break the Billboard R&B Hot 100. Pete joined "The Stand" as their lead guitarist and then formed his own band "Big Planet", which featured his original music. He kept a hand in the music industry by working as an Independent Radio Promotion person at Emergency Records, and then as the General Manager of the Ligosa Productions Management office for the Sony latin hip-hop sensation, George LaMond, and r&b diva, Carolyn Harding. In 1997, Pete partnered with producer Ken Beltrone to form Frank Language Productions Inc. They signed two female artists, Kyla Grogan and Ana Guigui, and produced several songs one of which ("Es Amor") was a winner in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest. Determined to realize his talents as a singer/songwriter Tufel went right back to work and recorded an album's worth of songs he had written over the last few years. This collective work became known as "Faithless". "Faithless" gives voice to the struggles and inner-conflicts of living, while ultimately celebrating the healing power of love. He is working on his second album and continues to deepen his craft through his studies in music theory and composition at The Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College.
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