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Now It's Chicago's
Piano Playing Contest
Local Music Industries and the Chicago Herald & Examiner
Complete Plans for the Greater Chicago Piano Playing
Tournament With Finals at Annual Convention on June 6
and WJJD, will keep the public advised of the
progress of the tournament and all other
Chicago radio stations have been asked to co-
operate. Nell Brinkley, the popular artist, will
contribute sketches and Arthur Brisbane has
arranged to prepare special editorials in con-
nection with the event.
Arrangements have been made for the dis-
tribution of brightly colored posters announc-
ing the tournaments to all the music stores
and vicinity and to music conservatories,
teachers, etc., as an added means of publicity.
The posters will read: "Be Sure to Enter Your
Emil Garber
Child in the Greater Chicago Children's Piano-
Director of Chicago Contest
Playing Tournament. Five Thousand Dollars
HICAGO, ILL., January 8—The stage has in Cash Prizes Will Be Awarded. Every School
been set and the campaign definitely Child in Chicago and Vicinity Is Eligible."
launched for the Greater Chicago Chil- Literature is also being prepared for distribu-
dren's Piano-Playing Tournament, plans for tion among the school principals, teachers and
which have been discussed for several months pupils throughout the city.
past in and out of the trade. The Chicago Herald
James Weber Linn, Professor of English at
& Examiner is co-operating with the local trade Chicago University . and columnist for the
and other musical interests in carrying on the Herald & Examiner, has prepared the following
contest, which will be given wide publicity official dedication for the tournament:
leading up to the preliminary tests during the
"To the lovers of the American home, who
months of March and April. District tests realize that only through music can the warm-
will be held the first two weeks in May and the est and finest feelings of family life best be
semi-finals during the last two weeks of that expressed.
month, with the grand finals staged as a leading
"The main purposes of the Greater Chicago
feature of the annual convention of the Na- Children's Piano-Playing Tournament are:
tional Music Industries to be held in this city
"1. To develop greater interest in music
during the week of June 6.
among children.
The contestants are to be divided into three
"2. To remind the public, and particularly
divisions: First, elementary, including those to parents, that music is most important in the
the sixth grade; second, intermediate, seventh life of a child.
and ninth grades, inclusive, and third, high,
"The Greater Chicago Children's Piano-Play-
taking in the tenth, eleventh and twelve grades, ing Tournament will accomplish the following:
inclusive. No professionals are eligible. Every
"1. It will develop musical talent through the
child attending a public, parochial or private healthy spirit of rivalry.
school and all pupils of individual music teach-
"2. It will show children that ability to play
ers in Greater Chicago.
the piano not only (a) makes life pleasanter,
There will be a first, second and third cash but (b) is a social advantage and (c) is a real
prize for each group or classification, as fol- help to success in any chosen vocation.
lows: • First prize, $500 in cash for each of the
"3. It will develop a higher standard of cul-
three divisions; second prize, $300 in cash for ture and so point the way to finer ideals, by
each of the three divisions; third prize, $200 creating in many homes an appreciation of the
in cash for each of the three divisions. The works of the foremost composers.
pianist who, in the opinion of the judges, is the
"4. It will show parents how important it
best of the three division winners will be given is to start children on the road to an appre-
an additional cash award of $1,000 and the title ciation of the art and the ability to express
of "Champion Amateur Junior Pianist of themselves with music.
Greater Chicago and Grand Prize Winner of
"5. It will lead to more honor and recognition
the Annual Greater Chicago Children's Piano- of the music teachers and artists who make
1 Maying Tournament."
real understanding of beautiful music possible.
Every preliminary and semi-final winner will
"6. It will make for better and happier homes,
be presented with a ring upon which a piano by showing that the piano, with which the first
has been engraved and there will be certificates musical education of the child should begin, is
and badges and buttons for the winners of dis- a necessity.
trict tests, the qualifying pianists, etc. All told,
"7. It will make an interest in music a com-
more than $5,000 will be given out in cash munity activity shared by everybody, and so
prizes.
all the more likely to be real and enduring."
The official sponsors for the tournament are
The supervising committee in charge of the
the National Bureau for the Advancement of tournament consists of the following: Emil
Music, New York, and the Apollo Club, the Garber, contest director of the Chicago Herald
Mendelssohn Club and the Singers' Verein, & Examiner, tournament director; Peter F.
Chicago, as well as the Chicago Herald & Ex- Meyer, managing editor of the Piano Trade
aminer. This newspaper plans to give the Magazine, Chicago, executive secretary and rep-
contest an unusual amount of publicity follow- resentative of the Chicago music industries; C.
ing the initial announcement to be published E. Austin, promotion manager of the Chicago
in that paper to-morrow, January 9. The Herald Herald & Examiner, exploitation director;
& Examiner radio broadcasting stations, W E B H James T. Bristol, president James T. Bristol
C
Co., treasurer; Henry E. Weisert, vice-president
Bissell-Weisert Piano Co., chairman finance
committee; Henry Hewitt, sales manager M.
Schulz Co., chairman committee on arrange-
ments; Herman Fleer, manager Lyon & Healy
piano division; Koger O'Connor, manager
Kranich & Bach, Chicago branch; G. R.
Brownell, manager Lyon & Healy tuning and
repair departments; Charles E. Byrne, vice-
president Steger & Sons Piano Mfg. Co., chair-
man ways and means committee; C. G. Steger,
president Steger & Sons Piano Mfg. Co.;
Eugene Whelan, W. W. Kimball Co., chairman
speakers' committee; Walter Kiehn, advertising
manager, the Gulbransen Co.; Eugene R.
Farny, manager Chicago division, Rudolph
Wurlitzer Co.; Gordon Laughead, Chicago
division, Rudolph Wurlitzer Co. and president
Piano Club of Chicago; Roy Cook, retail man-
ager, the Cable Piano Co.; Adam Schneider,
treasurer Julius Bauer & Co.; E. C. Hill, retail
manager Baldwin Piano Co.'s Chicago division;
Harry Bibb, phonograph division, Brunswick-
P.alke-Collender Co.; Matt J. Kennedy, of Matt
Peter F. Meyer
Executive Secretary of Contest
I. Kennedy, Chicago, and president National
Piano Travelers' Association; H. C. Dickinson,
vice-president Baldwin Piano Co.; Raymond
E. Durham, vice-president and general manager
Lyon & Healy; Otto Schulz, president M.
Schulz Co.; Frank Hood, vice-president Schiller
I'iano Co.; Kenneth W. Curtis, Chicago rep-
resentative for the Kohler Industries; M. C.
Meigs, publisher Chicago Herald & Examiner;
Hays McFarland, assistant publisher Chicago
Herald & Examiner; John Pratt, advertising
director Chicago Herald & Examiner; W. E.
Guylee, vice-president the Cable Company;
Sam Moist, Moist Piano Co.; George J.
Dowling, president the Cable Company; A. E.
Owen, general manager P. A. Starck Piano
Co.; Marquette A. Healy, president Lyon &
Healy; E. M. Love, treasurer Story & Clark
Piano Co.; A. G. Gulbransen, president the
(Continued on page 9)