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Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
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VOL. LXXVI. No. 25. Published Every Saturday. Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., at 383 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. June 23,1923
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A National Piano Contest Based on School Credits |HQ)
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N Chicago during convention week the band instrument manufacturers, through an offer of $6,000 in
prizes for the best high school bands, brought together something like thirty bands from many sections
of the country totaling well over 1,000 youthful musicians. These remained in Chicago throughout
the week and convinced every one who had occasion to go in or near Grant Park or along Michigan
Avenue that boys' bands can really produce music.
The final contest on Thursday afternoon, when the prizes were awarded, and the playing of the massed
bands at the conclusion of the ceremonies was without question the outstanding feature of the whole conven-
tion from a musical as well as a publicity standpoint. The band instrument manufacturers plan to repeat the
contest next year and it is felt that when the story of the first contest is heralded about the country the second
venture will prove even more successful.
Now that the band instrument people have shown the way and have accomplished something new and
definitely valuable in the cause of music advancement among high school students, it would seem as though
the piano men, to whom such publicity would prove of inestimable value, could find ways and means for conduct-
ing a contest of their own which would arouse public interest and incidentally and indirectly help business.
The suggestion is offered by The Review that the piano manufacturers, through their national associa-
tion and in co-operation with piano dealers, arrange for a contest in New York next year with substantial
prizes offered to the best pianists among those youngsters attending high or graded schools where credits for
music are given.
Such a contest could be staged at Carnegie Hall or some other large auditorium during convention
week and made an event of real and national importance through proper publicity. The contestants should be
limited to those schools granting music credits so that it would stimulate schools not on the list to grant such
credits either for the purpose of entering the contest or in recognition of the importance of the work.
The band instrument manufacturers gave prizes totaling $6,000 to the winning bands, the first prize of
$1,000 going to a band in which there were about fifty young musicians. The piano manufacturers at a similar
cost could do something even more impressive. The suggestion is made that the prize consist of a two, three
or four-year scholarship to the young pianist so fortunate as to win first prize, or perhaps the prize could be
divided so that the first prize would cover a two or three-year course and the second prize a one-year scholar-
ship. At least the award should be of a character to command interest and respect.
The matter is sufficiently important to warrant earnest consideration on the part of those members of
the piano trade who not only believe in the development of musical interest, and particularly interest in the
piano among school students, but likewise believe that a certain amount of national publicity will prove of
benefit and value to the industry as a whole.
Certainly if the manufacturers of the humble harmonica can create enough interest in that instrument
among the boys in the East to warrant contests for substantial prizes both in New York and Philadelphia, the
piano men could accomplish something in a national way.
For a number of years past members of the music industry and music educators generally have been
carrying on a campaign to have music recognized as an important part of the curriculum of the graded and
high schools of the country to the extent of having credits granted for music work.
This campaign has met with a satisfying measure of success and there is no question but that a national
contest confined to students in those schools giving credit would serve to stimulate interest on the part of
schools generally, to say nothing of the public interest in the contest itself if properly exploited.
The Review believes that a contest sponsored by the piano trade along the lines indicated is well worthy
of serious consideration.