Amazed at how easily he mimic other peoples styles. Truly amazing combination of raw talent and elite musicianship.
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I absolutely agree. I donāt know how true this is but I heard some where that when the great composers of the ages (Beethoven, Chopin etc) would each have a following of gifted students that studied under their tutelage, who in turn had their own students and followed down the line generation after generation and that Oscar Peterson was a student in the line from Hans Liszt. I wish I could say for a fact that this is true, I know I heard it. but it doesnāt sound too far fetched considering how great Oscar Peterson is.
Wowwwww! No fucking way man!! I never never thought of this! I just traced mine back to Beethoven! It took about a half an hour to research but it wasnāt too hard because I did college at a pretty well known music conservatory.
Myself -> William Phemester -> Leon Fleisher -> Artur Schnabel -> Theodore Leschetizsky -> Carl Czerny -> Beethovenā¦
So Iām a 6th generation of student of Beethovens, and unfortunately no where near as famous as my predecessors. Oh well.
Those as some big ass names in that piano list. Fleshier, Schnabel and Cherny were premier pianists of their day.
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I think this is quite possible. Piano lineage is extremely well documented. Iāll actually check right now.
ā¦and by the way, its FRANZ Liszt lol 
Wow. That took a whole 2 minutes to figure out.
Oscar Peterson -> Paul DeMarky -> Itsvan Thoman -> Franz Liszt.
You can absolutely say that is a true fact. There is no dispute anywhere in that lineage.
Thoman was APPOINTED BY Liszt to teach at the Royal Hungarian Music Academy, where he also mentored and taught Bela Bartok.
DeMarky was at McGill University in Canada. I couldnāt find too much on DeMarky as heās not a well known pianist, but to even get a position teaching in a college like that, you would need credentials which would probably include who you studied under.
So the Thoman - Liszt relationships is rock solid certain. And we have no reason not simply take Oscar at his word that he studied with DeMarky. I would be VERY surprised if the DeMarky - Thoman relationship turned out to be untrue.
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Jonathan Fantastic! - I remembered where I heard about this as I tucked into bed. It came from a Radio-Canada (French CBC) show called lāEscale Jazz, (Jazz outing) the animator was Stanley Payment (if I have that correct). His broadcast aired Monday to Friday evenings from 5 to 7 pm. I remember that because I would listen to this show driving home from work. This one week he focused entirely on Oscar Peterson, Believe it or not I had the pleasure of listening to the first night in a driving snow storm - I couldnāt have been more fortunate. He even as you just did, give a genealogy of the student lineage. Later on in one of the broadcast, there was a live recording of an Oscar Peterson performance and the piano had one note out of tune that was touched occasionally and very evident. To say the least I was disappointed when the series was over. Wow!
:beerbang:
Sooo Jonathan - we can expect to hear great things from you. lol
Iām a Wheaton Conserve grad too. Class of 1980.
I used to fix Bill Phemisterās cars when he needed help.
No way! haha. Thatās awesome! Small world. huh?
I was there in 2005.
Were you there for piano? What career path did you follow since then?
I ended up taking a some artist gigs, and when the tours ended I went back and forth between corporate work. Tried my hand at church music directing and wasnāt very good at it. Many of the conservatory graduates seemed to end up in churches and in schools. I didnāt do well with the administrative and bureaucracy of churches, and found I preferred working with professionals over volunteers. Some of it actually annoyed me to no end. Not being able to can (or fire) a volunteer, and having to pat them on the back and tell them āyou canāt sing worth a shit, but Jesus loves you anywayā, or having to pass the decision to buy a microphone stand through 10 committees was absolutely ridiculous. I still contract out to a lot of churches but only ever on a consulting or performing end. Is a much better fit for me to be handed a stack of papers and to be told āhereā¦play thisā.
Thereās a t-shirt industry hiding somewhere around hereā¦
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I was BME, but soured on music ed during student teaching. Enjoyed 30+ years as a pro horn player in Chicago and taught in the music departments of Concordia River Forest and Moody. Really enjoyed the college teaching-- the kids were there by choice, not because Mommy thought it would be good for Junior to play an instrument in which he had no interest.
I never did āpassā piano at Wheaton-- they didnāt ask and I didnāt tell them of my lack of piamo chops. For what itās worth, I now regret my inability to play piano.
Now relocated to care for inlaws. Carving a music niche in the new location playing horn and violaā¦
dk
Wow. Thats great. I have much respect for those schools.
I was actually attending there to enroll in the pilot launch of their Master of Theology in worship arts. Bill had put the entire curriculum together, they were enrolling students, I had auditioned, paid for it, and was getting the pre-requistes out of the way, then they fired him right before it was set to launch. He had the thing set up so you could complete the masters degree in one year, which included sacred music and chamber music internships serving at churches England. This was a kick ass program, and would have been the first masters degree offered through the Conservatory, and they pulled the plug. I withdrew, called my agent, moved Atlanta and joined the band McFly.
Where are you now?
On a lake west of Akron OH.