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It might seem like a given that Celine Peterson would eventually go into the family business.
The youngest of jazz legend Oscar Peterson’s seven children, Celine has spent more than a decade promoting music and representing jazz artists. She was in her early 20s when she began working in the industry. Her father, who died in 2007 at the age of 82, would have been 100 in 2025 and his estate is planning a number of events to honour him. But Celine says getting into the business, and honouring his formidable legacy, was not something that he ever expected of her.
“I’m lucky in that he never made me feel as though that was my responsibility, just like he never expected me to follow in his footsteps musically or otherwise,” says Celine. “His hope for all of his kids would be that we would find what made us happy and forge our own path. That made it easier for me to get to a place where I am now comfortably able to say this is how I want to work to support the strengthening of his legacy. It can be really daunting, but my thought process has always been that the best way to honour him is through music.”
So her approach to commemorating Oscar Peterson’s centennial will be “as much live music as possible in as many places as possible.” A series of events are planned throughout 2025, but the celebrations will officially kick off in Calgary on Friday with a three-night concert series called Oscar Peterson: Family Album. The shows will be presented Oct. 11 through 13 by BuckingJam Palace, a non-profit organization that holds intimate house concerts in the Mount Royal neighbourhood of Calgary. The concerts will feature Juno Award-winning pianist Robi Botos, bassist Mike Downes and drummer Jim Doxas, who is also musical director of the shows. Celine will sit down in conversation with Lisa Buck, artistic director of BuckingJam Palace, on all three nights.
The nights will be divided into themes. The first will focus on Jazz at the Philharmonic, which was a series of concerts and recordings Peterson made from the 1940s to the early 1980s. The second concert will Peterson’s work as a composer, while the third will focus on his later years. Born and raised in Montreal, Peterson rose to international fame in the 1940s and is regarded as one of the best jazz pianists of all time. He won numerous Grammys and Junos and recorded hundreds of albums. In 1978, he became the first performer inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.
“I’ll be sharing for the first time, especially in this kind of public capacity, some more personal stories, giving people a glimpse of what he was like at home and some stories from behind-the-scenes being on the road and giving a little more insight of what he was like as a human being,” Celine says. “So that is very special for me to be able to do. I’m nervous but I’m looking forward to it.”
Celine, who is on the board of directors of BuckingJam Palace, is also a producer and artist representative. Her roster includes Doxos, Botos, Juno-winning Calgary singer and composer Caity Gyorgy, singer Jackie Richardson and Dave Young, who played bass not only for Oscar Peterson but also for Lenny Breau and Oliver Jones.
Up until 2022, she was also a producer of the Kensington Market Jazz Festival in Toronto.
Oscar Peterson: Family Album is the first centennial celebration and the only event scheduled event for 2024.
“This format is likely a one-time thing,” Celine says. “We have a lot of other programming and live music coming up next year, very exciting things. But a couple of things, with this being one, will be one-offs. So not to be missed.”