25th Anniversary of Dame Myra Hess Concerts

uring England’s darkest days in World War II, renowned pianist Dame Myra Hess put aside her international career for more than five years to give regular free concerts in London’s National Gallery. Her contribution to wartime morale became legendary, and since 1977 it has served as the inspiration for Chicago’s Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series.

No one could have predicted that the 25th Anniversary Dame Myra Hess Concert, sponsored by Yamaha and the Chicago-based International Music Foundation in Chicago last October, would also take place under the pall of war.

But just as it did a half-century ago, the show went on, and a full house at the Chicago Cultural Center’s Preston Bradley Hall was rewarded with what Chicago Tribune reviewer John von Rhein called a “warm, deeply felt” performance of Johannes Brahms’ Sextet in G major, Op. 36 by the Vermeer Quartet with guest violinist Rami Solomonow and cellist Christopher Costanza of the Chicago String Quartet. The concert was also broadcast live on WFMT-FM 98.7.

Chicago Commissioner of Cultural Affairs Lois Weisberg presented Yamaha Corporation of America Senior Vice President Terry Lewis with a certificate of appreciation for the company’s longstanding support of the program. Maggie Daley, chairman of the Chicago Cultural Center Foundation, was among the speakers who greeted the noontime concertgoers, as was Norman Bobins, CEO of LaSalle Bank, which has sponsored the free concerts since 1999. Al Booth, the series’ founder, drew a round of enthusiastic applause from the gathering before the music started.

The ongoing series is a program of the International Music Foundation’s Dame Myra Hess Young Musicians Concert Program, devoted to providing a stage for up and coming classical musicians.

Lois Weisberg, Chicago Commissioner of Cultural Affairs, and Terry Lewis

The Taubman Institute Celebrates 25 Years

"he Taubman Institute’s International Piano Festival now has a strong claim to being the most significant piano festival in America,” writes music critic Richard Dyer in The Boston Globe. Held annually in July at the rustic campus of Williams College in Williamstown, MA, the event attracts performers, teachers, and students of piano from around the world.

Jim Wooten, director of Yamaha Artist Services, and George Garber, piano manager at Falcetti Music in Springfield, MA, provided 12 Yamaha acoustic grand, upright, and Disklavier® pianos for master classes and practice sessions, as well as a CFIIIS concert grand piano for evening concerts.

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