Jazz scholarship recipient celebrated in style

With a four-year running scholarship, it would seem only inevitable that the Oscar Peterson Scholarship would expand into a more formal affair, and this year it did, with the first Oscar Peterson Gala.
Headlined by the Marcus Roberts Trio, the gala had much of York’s music faculty and past recipients in attendance, culminating in this year’s scholarship being handed to Mississauga-based guitarist, Michael Shanahan.

This carries with it a prestigious title, and a $40,000 purse that is given out in increments of $10,000 a year, conditional on the recipient keeping a high GPA.

Past recipients include Sarah Thawer, Eric Miller, and Kairon Haynes.
Oscar Peterson is widely regarded as Canada’s greatest jazzmusician, and was a jazz professor at York in the 1990s. He’s known for pieces such as “Hogtown Blues” and the “Canadiana Suite,” as well as being regarded as the person that put Canadian jazz on the international map.