Myra Hess

Dame Julia Myra Hess, DBE (25 February 1890 – 25 November 1965) was a British pianist.

Julia Myra Hess was born on 25 February 1890 to a Jewish family in Kilburn, London. The youngest of four children, she began playing the piano at an early age, starting lessons when she was five.. Two years later, she entered the Guildhall School of Music, where Hess graduated as winner of the Gold Medal. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music under Tobias Matthay. Her debut came in 1907 when she played Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 with Sir Thomas Beecham conducting. She went on to tour through Britain, the Netherlands and France. Upon her American debut (New York City, 24 January 1922) she became a prime favourite in the United States, not only as a soloist, but also as a fine ensemble player. She also has a link to jazz, having given lessons in the 1920s to Elizabeth Ivy Brubeck, mother of Dave Brubeck.

Hess garnered greater fame during the Second World War when, with all concert halls blacked out at night to avoid being targets of German bombers, she organised what would turn out to be almost 2,000 lunchtime concerts spanning a period of six years, starting during the London Blitz. The concerts were held at the National Gallery, in Trafalgar Square; Hess herself played in 150 of them. For this contribution to maintaining the morale of the populace of London, King George VI awarded her with the Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1941. (She had previously been created a CBE in 1936.) Hess makes a brief appearance performing at one of her lunchtime concerts in the 1942 wartime documentary Listen to Britain (directed by Humphrey Jennings and Stuart McAllister).

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