Myra Hess facts for kids
Dame Julia Myra Hess (born February 25, 1890 – died November 25, 1965) was a famous English pianist. She was especially known for playing the music of great composers like Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schumann.
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Myra Hess's Life and Music
Early Life and Musical Start
Myra Hess was born in South Hampstead, London, on February 25, 1890. She was the youngest of four children in her family. Myra started playing the piano when she was just five years old! She later studied music at the Guildhall School of Music and the Royal Academy of Music. Her teacher there was a well-known musician named Tobias Matthay.
Myra Hess played her first big concert in 1907. She performed Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 with Sir Thomas Beecham leading the orchestra. After this, she traveled and performed in Britain, the Netherlands, and France. When she played her first concert in the United States in New York City in 1922, she quickly became a favorite musician there.
Concerts During World War II
Myra Hess became even more famous during the Second World War. At that time, concert halls in London were often dark at night to avoid being targets for German bombers. To keep people's spirits up, Myra Hess organized nearly 2,000 lunchtime concerts. These concerts started during The Blitz, which was a time of heavy bombing in London.
The concerts were held at the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. Myra Hess started them just a few weeks after the war began. They happened every Monday to Friday for six and a half years without stopping! If London was being bombed, the concert would move to a smaller, safer room. Every artist who performed was paid a small fee.
In total, Myra Hess put on 1,698 concerts, and over 824,000 people attended them. She personally played in 150 of these concerts. She even appeared briefly in a 1942 wartime movie called Listen to Britain, playing at one of her lunchtime concerts. The Queen Mother was in the audience and enjoyed the performance.
For her amazing work in keeping London's spirits high, King George VI honored her in 1941. She was given the title of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. This is a very special award in Britain.
Music After the War
After the war, in 1946, a famous conductor named Arturo Toscanini invited Myra Hess to play with the NBC Symphony Orchestra in New York City. She was most known for playing the music of Mozart, Beethoven, and Schumann. However, she could play many different types of music, from very old pieces to new ones.
Myra Hess also played a lot of chamber music, which is music for small groups of instruments. She often performed piano duets (music for two pianos) with another pianist named Irene Scharrer. She helped people learn more about the piano music of Schubert.
In 1926 and 1934, Myra Hess created a very famous arrangement of a piece of music. It was a chorale (a type of hymn) from Bach's Cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben. Her arrangement was published with the title Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. This piece is still very popular today.
Teaching and Influence
Myra Hess also taught many young musicians. Some of her students became famous pianists themselves, like Stephen Kovacevich. She even gave lessons to the mother of the famous jazz musician Dave Brubeck.
A piano piece called In a Vodka Shop by composer Arnold Bax was dedicated to Myra Hess in 1915.
Last Concert and Retirement
Myra Hess played her last public concert in September 1961 at London's Royal Festival Hall. She had to stop performing because she had a stroke earlier that year, which caused lasting brain damage. Even though she couldn't play in public anymore, she continued to teach a few students during her final years.
Myra Hess's Legacy
Myra Hess passed away on November 25, 1965, at the age of 75, from a heart attack at her home in London. There is a special blue plaque on her former home at 48 Wildwood Road in London. This plaque shows that a famous person once lived there.
Her own Steinway piano is now kept at the Bishopsgate Institute and has been lovingly renamed "Myra The Steinway" in her honor.
Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts in Chicago
In 1977, the Chicago Cultural Center started a series of free lunchtime concerts. These concerts are held every Wednesday and are named the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts, in her honor. The concerts are produced by Chicago's International Music Foundation and have been broadcast live on radio and online since 1977.
See also
In Spanish: Myra Hess para niños
