CANNES, France (CelebrityAccess) — Peermusic Chair and CEO, Ralph Peer II, has been named ‘Officier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres’ (‘Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters’), France’s top cultural honor, by French Minister of Culture, Françoise Nyssen.
The French cultural award is given in recognition of outstanding contributions to the arts in France both at home, and internationally.
The presentation was made at a June 5 gala dinner held by the International Confederation of Music Publishers (ICMP) during the Midem conference in Cannes.
Making the presentation on behalf of the French Culture Minister, Reed MIDEM Chief Executive Paul Zilk said, “Ralph Peer II is a world-recognized expert in copyright issues and a champion of international composers’ rights. His commitment to the international music community and management of the world’s largest privately-owned music publisher, peermusic, is inspirational and it is a pleasure to recognise his achievements with this important French cultural award.”
“I’m most honoured to receive this award from a country that shares my and peermusic’s commitment to protecting composers’ rights and defending important international copyright rules. I want to share this recognition with all those who have worked at peermusic over the past 91 years and to reaffirm that our commitment to music and those who create music, is as strong as ever,” commented Ralph Peer II.
Ralph Peer II is Chair and CEO of peermusic, the world’s largest privately-held music publisher. peermusic maintains 35 offices in 28 countries, and oversees a catalogue of more than 500,000 musical works from a broad range of styles, including country, blues, jazz, pop, Latin, classical and rock ‘n’ roll.
In addition to his work at peermusic, Peer also serves as Ralph Peer is Vice President and Director of the National Music Publishers’ Association, and is a former President of the Country Music Association and past Chairman and current Board member of the International Confederation of Music Publishers.
