Peter Duchin

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Peter Oelrichs Duchin (born 28 July 1937, New York City) is a pianist and band leader. He is the son of pianist and band leader Eddy Duchin. His mother was Marjorie Oelrichs, a Newport, Rhode Island and New York City socialite who died unexpectedly when he was just five days old. He was raised by close family friends, statesman W. Averell Harriman and his wife, Marie Norton Whitney Harriman.

Duchin was educated at Eaglebrook and Hotchkiss prep schools in New England. He spent time in Paris, France and studied at the Sorbonne before returing home and graduating from Yale University.

He married in 1964 to Cheray Zauderer, a divorced Manhattan socialite with whom he had three children. As a wedding gift, her father gave them a Thoroughbred yearling named Mr. Right. The colt became one of four racehorses to ever win both the U.S. West Coast's Santa Anita Handicap and the East Coast's Woodward Stakes.

Duchin is an honorary member and former Vice-Chairman of the New York State Council on the Arts. He has served on the boards of American Ballet Theatre, Carnegie Hall, Spoleto Festival USA, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the board of Trustees for the Glimmerglass Opera of Cooperstown, New York, the Advisory Council for the American Russian Youth Orchestra, the National Jazz Service Organization, the World Policy Institute, and the Citizens Committee For New York City.

Having divorced, in 1985 Peter Duchin married Brooke Hayward. The couple maintain a loft in New York City and a house in Washington in Litchfield County, Connecticut. In 1996 he published his memoirs entitled Ghost of a Chance: A Memoir.

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