Dutch/American composer Egon Petri (1881-1962).
In 1927 he moved to Zakopane in Poland where he conducted summer and early fall sessions and master-classes to a group of pre-selected piano students until the outbreak of World War II in 1939. From 1929 he made a number of recordings for several labels including Columbia Records.
Petri escaped Poland the day before the German invasion in September 1939, but he had to leave behind all his books, music and letters, including his correspondence with Busoni (these papers survived and have been recovered). He moved to the United States, working first at Cornell University and later at Mills College in Oakland, California. He pointedly refused ever to play in Germany again. He became a naturalised American citizen in 1955.
He was an influential figure among many pianists of the middle 20th century. Earl Wild, Ozan Marsh and John Ogdon were among his international students.
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