He doesn’t even mention her within his bio for Jamie Peck Productions.
Peck mentions his work with ABC, CBS, NBC, HBO, Showtime, Bravo, Nickelodeon, MTV, and TV Land, and the composer/producer even mentions his bride, Monica, their son, Liam, and their pet cats that are with them now and those from the past.
He mentions working with superstar Brad Paisley as a younger man, and with the band Toto at his Fat Cat Studio in downtown Wheeling.
But there’s not a word about his Emmy.
She’s a gal who has been with him for nine years now, and they met in Philadelphia. At the end of the evening, he had to sign her out with security. Shoot, he jokes around sometimes by referring to her as a “paperweight.”
“She knows I’m kidding,” Peck said while staring at her. “At least I hope she does.”
Each September, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences honors those in the industry for outstanding performances in many areas, and Outstanding Musical Composition and Arrangement is one of them. In 2012, Peck worked with WQED in Pittsburgh and with PBS to compose music for “Pittsburgh from the Air,” a program that highlights the rise-and-fall-and-rise-again history of the largest municipality in western Pennsylvania.
“When I received the call for the people producing ‘Pittsburgh from the Air’ for PBS, the director told that me that he was embarrassed because he didn’t have much of a budget,” Peck said. “He told me he had only $2,400, so I started thinking to myself that it was WQED and PBS, so I told him I would do it. He replied, ‘Really?’
“What I didn’t know was what I was getting into because it was 59 minutes of music that I had to compose in six weeks, and two weeks of it was wasted with the director trying to figure out what he wanted,” he recalled. “Once I started sending him some cues, he sent me an email, and it said, ‘I think we have a thematic disconnected.’ I was crushed. He didn’t like it at all.”
The Savior
It was a new career low. Never before, not with his work with Jamboree USA or with B.E. Taylor, was his work dismissed as worthless. His musical career began at the age of 9, and once he graduated a year early from Oak Glen High School, he skipped college because the industry was calling.
This time, however, it was a slammed-down hang-up.
“Then my wife, Monica, came home from work, and she asked what was wrong. I was grey, and I was ready to chuck it all in,” Peck recalled. “Immediately, she said, ‘Let me hear it,’ so I played it for her. That’s when she looked at me in an odd way and asked me, ‘What is this?’ And that’s when she started making suggestions and even though I was frustrated, I made all of the changes she was suggesting.
“I thought I was humoring her all along, but then all of a sudden I heard what the director wanted,” he said. “I ended up loving it after I finished it at 2 a.m., and I sent it. At 8 a.m. the next morning I told her to be prepared to be crushed.”
And then?
“Ten minutes later, I get a return email,” Peck said. “When I opened it, there was only one word — ‘MONEY.’ I tear up even thinking about it. I was back.”
And he and his wife were invited to the premiere party on Mount Washington.
“There was this big soiree up at the Lamont, and the sponsors were there. and there was even a big ice sculpture,” Peck said. “That’s the evening when I was advised to enter it for an Emmy nomination, and that was something I had not even thought about. I kind of laughed, to be honest, because I had never heard my name in the same sentence with an Emmy Award. But then it was entered for consideration, but I didn’t think it had a chance.
“But then it got nominated, believe it or not,” he said. “They conned me into going to this big ceremony in Philadelphia, and I didn’t want to go because I didn’t think it had a chance. I should have known something was up, though, because I was seated at a table very close to the stage.”
A Shoe-In?
Someone at the Emmy Awards Show uttered the exact same “shoe-in” comment to him, so naturally, Peck believed he was doomed yet again.
Peck has a history of not winning. While he was a public-school student, a classmate told him he was a “shoe-in” to win what he believed was a “major award.” When it was time for him to collect the hardware, though, the teacher called out a different name.
“But then my category comes up, and I just started looking at my wife. I couldn’t watch because I was petrified, but then they called my name,” he said. “I had to go the stage to get my statue. And no, I did not have a speech prepared.
“After the ceremony, I had to go backstage because they had security there, and I had to sign for the Emmy,” Peck explained. “I can’t sell it. Can’t give it away. If I do give it away and they found out about it, the Emmy would go back to them, and it goes into a vault with my name on it, and that’s where it would stay forever.”
Following a 10-year tenure at West Liberty University, Peck now is working full-time in his home-based studio with local bands like Crandall Creek, and he also is developing a podcast called, “The Jamie Peck Show” that will begin broadcasting in the near future.
“I started at West Liberty University in 2011, and I was there until the new administration came in and decided to make some changes,” Peck said. “I miss the students and the teaching because I have an educator’s heart; I really do. I like mentoring people because I am really an open book, and a lot of people in my industry are not.
“They don’t give their secrets away. They keep everything to themselves so they have an edge, but I’m not that guy. If you want to know about something, I’ll teach it,” he continued. “If I can help you get where you want to be, I will do what I can to help. That’s really what I miss most about the West Liberty gig.”
