Peter Van Gelder (born March 19, 1940) is a sitarist and musician who played saxophone and bass in The Great Society.

[2] He became interested in Indian music after working at a San Francisco radio station and took a summer class at University of California Berkeley with Ali Akbar Khan where he learned to play sitar.

[2][3] While in India, he met other musicians with whom he formed the band The Saddhu Brand when he returned to California.

[4] He is an instructor at the Ali Akbar College of Music in San Rafael, California.

[1][5][6] Van Gelder grew up in a household where his parents listened to Western classical music.