Oscar Emmanuel Peterson (August 15, 1925 – December 23, 2007)[1] was a Canadian virtuoso jazz pianist and composer. Considered one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time, Peterson released more than 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, as well as a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy, and received numerous other awards and honours. He played thousands of concerts worldwide in a career lasting more than 60 years. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, simply "O.P." by his friends, and informally in the jazz community as "the King of inside swing".
By the age of 25, Peterson was respected all over the world for his incredible skill as a pianist. Downbeat magazine named him “Pianist of the Year” every year between 1950-1962, but Peterson faced a lot of discrimination and racism in his life. He and his manager once had to face down an armed policeman who tried to stop him getting into a “whites only” taxi cab. Peterson performed all over the world, and composed some famous music, including the Canadiana Suite, and the song Hymn to Freedom, which became an anthem in the civil rights movement. He became an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1984, and won many awards, including a Governor General’s Performing Arts award in 1992, the Glenn Gould Prize in 1993, a special Grammy award for lifetime achievement in 1997, and the UNESCO Music Prize in 2000.