Talks & Entertainment

With a dazzling keyboard command and a seemingly unlimited wellspring of musical ideas, Romanian keyboard giant Marian Petrescu has risen the pianistic bar. “When I was eight years-old, I heard Oscar Peterson on TV,” Petrescu says. “I was so impressed, and at once I knew: This is what I want. This is what I will try to do. And I had to try very hard, because Oscar had that unbelievable musical level. It was not only his incredible technique, but the way he thought and handled this beautiful instrument.” It’s obvious from Petrescu’s impassioned playing that the late jazz piano giant made an indelible impression on him. Peterson’s spirited swing is very much an integral part of Peterescu’s playing.

Petrescu has played with and learned from some of the greatest musicians of our generation and is a firm believer in the power of education. He teaches both classical and jazz at his own music school in Finland. Come see the jazz duo light up the stage in a DC Jazz Festival feature performance – a tribute to the great Oscar Peterson.