Peter Russo was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and studied at the North Carolina School of the Arts under the tutelage of Massey Johnson, a protégé of Saul Goodman. He then continued his studies with James Preiss, Gordon Gottlieb, Glenn Velez, Roland Kohloff, Steven Schick, and others in New York City before graduating from the Mannes Music Conservatory / New School for Social Research in 2001.

Russo spent many years in New York City working with dance companies, Broadway productions, and contemporary music ensembles. He has received numerous awards, including recognition from the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts in percussion performance. Over the years, he has performed with a wide range of musicians and ensembles, including Cirque du Soleil, the Brooklyn Symphony, the Winston-Salem Symphony, the Queens Symphony Orchestra, and more.

While dedicated to classical percussion performance and education for the past 20 years, he is also a music composer, working in film and other mediums. After living and working in New York City and Los Angeles for well over 25 years, he moved back to his hometown of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in 2022, where he maintains his own percussion studio, focusing on educational materials and solo performance development.

He currently teaches out of his private studio in West End, Winston-Salem and is on the teaching staff at The Guitar Shop of Elm Street in Greensboro.