A year later, on June 3, 1904, their third child, Jacob Pincus, was born in a cold water flat in the Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York.

At his mother's urging he took violin lessons,[5] and gave public performances, including dance band work as Jack "Pinky" Pearl.

Jan remained on the Lower East Side until his 1930 marriage to Alice Kalmanovitz (1907–1994), a childhood friend to whom he was married for 54 years, until his death.

In 1932 he was hired as a tenor soloist with the Radio City Music Hall company by the impresario Roxy, who renamed him John Pierce.

Peerce first sang publicly with Toscanini on February 6, 1938, in Carnegie Hall in an NBC broadcast performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony; the soloists also included soprano Vina Bovy, mezzo-soprano Kerstin Thorborg, and bass Ezio Pinza.

He made his professional opera debut with the company on December 10 of that year as the Duke of Mantua in Verdi's Rigoletto with Robert Weede in the title role and Fritz Mahler conducting.

Peerce sang in several more performance with the PLSOC through 1941, singing Pinkerton in Puccini's Madama Butterfly with Elda Ercole as Cio-Cio-San, and reprising the roles of the Duke and Alfredo a number of times.

"[citation needed] In December 1943, Peerce appeared in the OWI film Hymn of the Nations with Toscanini, the NBC Symphony Orchestra, and the Westminster Choir in a performance of Verdi's then seldom-heard cantata.

During the 1950s Peerce performed regularly as a featured soloist before audiences of over 14,000 guests under the conductor Alfredo Antonini at the Lewisohn Stadium in New York City.

These Italian Night open-air concerts featured the New York Philharmonic and the Lewisohn Stadium Orchestra along with such operatic luminaries as Richard Tucker, Robert Merrill, and Eileen Farrell.

Peerce did not sing in Toscanini's broadcasts of Verdi's Otello, Aida, or Falstaff; he was offered the tenor parts in the latter two but declined, believing his voice was not right for those roles.

He also sang in the Madison Square Garden concert in 1944, which featured the final act of Rigoletto with Leonard Warren, Zinka Milanov, and Toscanini conducting the combined New York Philharmonic and NBC Symphony Orchestra; this performance was recorded and also released by RCA Victor on LP and CD.

Among the operas Peerce recorded commercially for RCA Victor were Verdi's Rigoletto in 1950 with Leonard Warren singing the title role, Erna Berger, and Nan Merriman, Bizet's Carmen in 1951 with Risë Stevens in the title role, Licia Albanese, and Robert Merrill, and also Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor in 1957 with Roberta Peters, Philip Maero, and Giorgio Tozzi and Ariadne auf Naxos, with Leonie Rysanek, Sena Jurinac, Roberta Peters, and Walter Berry, conducted also by Erich Leinsdorf.

Several opera excerpt albums with Peerce were released by RCA Victor as well including Samson et Dalila with Risë Stevens and Madama Butterfly with Licia Albanese.