“Pianist Dame Myra Hess once said she … ‘longed to throw open the doors to the very best music, at a price which all would be able to afford,’ ” writes Stephen Raskauskas on Wednesday (10/18) at Chicago radio station WFMT. “So, Hess founded the National Gallery concert series in wartime London…. On October 20, 1977, the first Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert was presented in Chicago, inspired by her passion to make music accessible for all…. Over 3,000 artists have appeared in the series…. Al Booth, who established the International Music Foundation, was motivated … to bring a similar concert series to Chicago… The largest Tiffany dome in the world is in Preston Bradley Hall in the Chicago Cultural Center where the Dame Myra Memorial Hess Concerts take place every week…. Audience members ‘run the gamut from devoted regulars to the tourist who hears the music and goes up and says, “Let’s see what this is about,” ’… [series presenter Ann] Murray said.… A highlight for Murray … has been ‘watching musicians make their way through careers.’ … Pianist Daniil Trifonov ‘had his debut when, I think, he was 19. Then he went on to win the Tchaikovsky Competition,’ Murray said.”
Posted October 20, 2017
