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The Music Trade Review
DECEMBER 4, 1926
Glen Bros,-Roberts Hold Piano Playing Contest
(Continued from page 3)
the applicants until about thirty days before the
contest is actually to be decided. We are
naturally quite anxious to know just how many
of our'teachers expect to enter students in the
contest, and we will appreciate it very much if
you will let us know by return mail whether
or not you contemplate entering a student.
"Another question has arisen: As to whether
there are going to be any further changes in the
numbers or selections to be played during the
contest. We have answered this question in a
previous letter but wish to repeat that all the
numbers have been definitely selected, and there
will positively be no further changes in these
numbers.
"The numbers to be played are: (a)—Bee-
thoven sonata, Opus 53; (b) 'Perpetual Mo-
tion,' rondo from Sonata Op. 54—Von Weber,
and (c) 'Liebestraum,' nocturne No. 3—Liszt.
"The above are the three selections that the
contest will be decided upon, and we urge you
to immediately encourage your best students to
begin preparation now. Don't allow them to
delay. Every teacher in the State is entitled
and urged to enter one student in this contest.
"We have rather a perplexing problem in the
matter of the selection of judges for the con-
test. Some of our most important teachers
have suggested that we get in touch with one of
the big artists who may be on tour this Fall,
and the writer expects to take this matter up
during June, at which time he will be in New
York City and will be able to learn definitely
whether any of the artists will be in the vicinity
of Salt Lake City at about the time we expect
to hold the contest.
"We feel, as do a good many of our teachers,
that if we could figure on the services of one
of the big outstanding artists to act as a judge
in the contest that it will be much more satis-
factory to teachers entering students than it
will be to depend entirely upon local talent in
the selection of the winner. We will advise
you, by letter, just as soon as we learn which,
if any, of the artists can be relied upon to help
us in this matter, and this letter will probably
be in your hands sometime late in June or early
in July.
"We are delighted with the interest being
taken by so many of our music teacher friends,
and feel that our motive for conducting this
contest is understood and appreciated.
"We also feel that instead of making this a
three-year contest, or in other words offering
a piano each year for three years, that we will
probably decide to make it an annual event ex-
lending over a period of from seven to ten
years. This has not as yet been definitely de-
cided. We have, however, decided to hold the
contest annually for the next three years.
"We wish to announce that we now have one
of the contest pianos in both our Salt Lake
City and Ogden stores, and we will consider it
a pleasure and a privilege to have you call with
any of your students and let us show you what
a truly wonderful piano this $1,750 Chickering
is. You will find our salespeople willing and
anxious to show you all the points about this
new instrument, and we believe that you will go
away convinced that the Chickering is abso-
lutely the finest piano that money, brains and
experience can produce. We feel sure at any
rate that if any student who is not wholly en-
thusiastic at present will come in and play this
instrument for a few minutes, that student will
have a greater determination to qualify and is
going to make a sincere effort to be the suc-
cessful contestant and happy owner of this
splendid instrument.
"Will you please reply, letting us know
whether or not you contemplate entering a
student? We will consider this a genuine favor,
and, of course, the more teachers who enter
students, the more encouraged we will feel.
"Assuring you of our sincere desire to do all
in our power to make Utah more musical, we
remain,
Respectfully yours;
"GLEN BROS.-ROBERTS PIANO CO.,
"GEORGE S. GLEN, president."
The interest among the music teachers
throughout the State was most gratifying, as
was shown by their many letters containing
commendations and suggestions, as well as
those making inquiry, received by the sponsors.
A very substantial proportion of the teachers
immediately announced that they would enter
students for the elimination finals and, on Sep-
tember 30, the formal application blanks were
distributed. Through the means of letters and
newspaper announcements both the public and
music teachers were kept advised of the prog-
ress of the contest and the company itself was
alive to the publicity value of the move, not
only for the Chickering piano but for the
Ampico installed in it.
Early in March, for instance, it was an-
nounced, in a letter to the teachers, that "as an
aid to teachers and students, we have ordered
a number of sets of Ampico recordings of the
Grieg concerto, and invite all teachers and stu-
dents to our stores either in Salt Lake City or
Ogden, where we will be very glad to play all
three movements as often as you wish to hear
them. The recordings are as played by Mar-
guerite Volavy, the distinguished Bohemian
pianist. Her touch has that virile quality that
women pianists seldom acquire. Endowed with
a brilliant technique and an exquisite musical
sense, her playing of the Grieg Concerto will
delight and inspire you."
Arrangements were made by the Glen Bros.-
Roberts Piano Co. to hold the final contest in
the auditorium of the McCune School of Music
and Art in Salt Lake City on November 6, but
so great was the interest taken in the contest
that arrangements were made finally for the use
of the West Side High School Auditorium in
Salt Lake City, with a seating capacity of 1,500.
On the night of the contest the auditorium
was well filled with teachers, students, and the
relatives and friends of the entrants. The final
decision was a difficult matter. The number of
contestants eligible to the prize were finally
reduced to fifteen, and of these all but three
were eventually eliminated, they being Wade
Stevens, of Ogden, Miss Helen Budge, of Salt
Lake City and Miss Lilas Johnson. The final
award on points was made to Miss Budge to
whom the Chickering grand was awarded.
In selecting the judges the Glen Bros.-
Roberts Piano Co. showed great wisdom in
securing men and women with wide musical
knowledge, and unquestioned standing. The
judges were Tracy Cannon, Director of the Mc-
Cune School of Music and;. Art, Salt Lake City;
Prof. Thomas Giles, Professor of Music, Uni-
versity of Utah, Salt Lake City; Sterling Fogcl-
berg, teacher of piano, Salt Lake City; Frank-
lin Madsen, Professor of Music, Brigham
Young University, Provo; J. Spencer Cornwall,
Supervisor of Music, Granite School District,
Salt Lake City; A. C. Lund, Director of Taber-
nacle Choir, Salt Lake City; Miss Lyle Brad-
ford, Director of Music, East Side High
School, Salt Lake City; Frank Jagger, Teacher
of Piano, Ogden; Dr. J. E. Carver, Ogden, and
Mrs. R. B. Porter, Ogden.
In commenting on the contest Mr. Glen said:
"We feel that a tremendous amount of good
was the result of this competition, even to the
students who did not compete.
One of the
most important teachers in Utah told me: 'Mr.
Glen, you have accomplished something in your
contest here greater than you realize.' Another
said: 'This is the greatest thing that has ever
been done for the promotion of music in the
State of Utah.' Another teacher was generous
enough to tell me that his students had accom-
plished in six months what it would ordinarily
take a student two years to accomplish and
many other similar remarks, which gave us a
real satisfaction and encourage us to go ahead
with the contests in the future."
It is the intention of the Glen Bros.-Roberts
Piano Co., as set forth in the first announce-
ment of the contest, to award a Chickering
grand as prize under similar conditions for three
consecutive years, and in view of the success
that has attended the initial competition, it is
firmly believed that next year and the year fol-
lowing, the co-operation of the teachers will be
even more noteworthy, and that the number of
contestants will show, it is hoped, a marked
increase.
The most remarkable feature of the whole
thing is that one retail piano house of high
standing in its community had the foresight and
courage to stage and carry through such a
notable undertaking. The company itself bore
the entire expense, which included the mail
campaign, the advertising, the hiring of the
auditorium, and the numerous other incidentals.
The direct result, however, has been to estab-
lish the name of the Glen Bros.-Roberts Piano
Co. firmly on the minds of close to 300 repre-
sentative music teachers throughout the State
of Utah—publicity that through other channels
could not be bought at many times the cost.
What has been possible for the Glen Bros.-
Roberts Piano Co. to accomplish in Utah, is
possible for music merchants in every other
section of the country. It might not be feasible,
of course, for the single dealer in the more-
thickly populated States in the East to attempt
a State-wide contest, but it is entirely feasible
for him to attempt a contest on the Utah plan
to cover his own city and environs on the sev-
eral counties in which he most directly oper-
ates.
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