Episode 191: About Oscar Peterson, with Louise Rose.

Oscar Peterson is described by one of his former students, Victoria’s Louise Rose, as being “driven”…yet still “without ego”. And in the 1972 documentary about him called In the Key Of Oscar, he expressed mixed feelings about the driven-ness, some of which was influenced by a desire to meet his father’s high expectations.

There is also the theme of racial prejudice which affected him deeply.. Louise Rose also talks about that and how it got in the way of her becoming a classical pianist.

I play lots of Oscar Peterson in this episode, as well as Louise Rose interpreting his music….illustrating how Oscar Peterson taught her to “play like yourself”, not like him.

And there was a contemporary of Oscar Peterson’s who lived and played in Vancouver—a pianist named Chris Gage. Oscar Peterson thought he was amazing and definitely a musical rival. But he never recorded. I play a recording of his amazing piano from a CBC broadcast.