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News Number
THE
VOL. 88. No. 3
REVIEW
Published Weekly. Federated Business Publications, Inc., 420 Lexington Ave., New York, N. Y. Jan. 19,1929
Single Copies 10 Cents
$3.00 Per Year
Lester Concert Ensemble Wins
Success in Philadelphia
Talented Group of Artists Sponsored by Prominent Piano Manu-
facturers Wins Laurels in Local Musical Circles
While Presenting New Concert Band
the Lester Ensemble and including such cele-
brities as Elwood Weiser, baritone; Edouard
Hargraves, pianist and Judson Eldridge, pianist.
The concerts by the ensemble have been
most successful in demonstrating the superb
qualities of the Lester concert grand style J,
with newly drawn scales by Paul M. Zeidler,
the prominent technician, who has been instru-
mental in perfecting the new instrument. It is
interesting to note that the Lester concert grand
has been endorsed and adopted officially by the
artists of the Pennsylvania Grand Opera Com-
pany, the Civic Opera Company of Philadelphia,
and the Women's Symphony Orchestra, of this
city, and in other directions has won high
commendation from those prominent in musical
affairs. The Lester concert grand has thus been
established as an instrument of genuine merit.
The new Lester concert grand piano has,
HILADELPHIA, PA., January 14.—Among the outstanding musical events in the Quaker
City during the current season is a series of concerts being given by the Lester Concert
Ensemble sponsored by the Lester Piano Co. These fine musical affairs are given each
Sunday evening at the Benjamin Franklin Hotel and attract capacity audiences. The ensemble
is also presenting programs before various colleges, women's clubs and civic organizations in
and about the city, and both the programs and the manner in which they are presented have
been highly commended by the press and by
various organizations. They are declared in Century Club, Philomusian Club, the Women's
fact to have an educational value that cannot Musical Clubs of Doylestown, Pa., Lansdowne
be overlooked.
and Germantown, at the Review Club in Oak
The artists making up the ensemble include Lane; Women's Club of Glenside; Episcopal
Wilbur Evans, bass baritone and winner of the
Atwater Kent National Radio Audition prize
in 1927, who is at present a scholarship pupil
of Emilio De Gogorza at the Curtis Institute
of Music; Josef Wissow, a pianist of wide repu-
tation and a teacher at the National Conserva-
tory of Music, New York, who has appeared as
solo pianist with both the Philadelphia Orches-
tra and the Philharmonic Society; Jeno De
Donath, a famous Hungarian violinist, composer
and conductor, formerly of the faculty of the
Conservatoire de Budapest, and of the Academic
de Musique in Geneva, and Mary Miller Mount,
prominent coach and accompanist, who has
accompanied such well known artists as the late
David Bispham, John Barcklay, Lambert
Murphy, Henri Scott and others.
The program given by the ensemble at the
Benjamin Franklin Hotel last night is charac-
teristic and indicates the calibre of the music
offered. It consisted of several solos by Mr.
Evans, including "O, Thou Sublime Evening
Star" from "Tannhauser," and Speak's "Sylvia,"
together with encore numbers "Boots," Curran's
"Nocturne," and Nevan's "Mighty Lak' a Rose."
Then came the playing of Svendsen's "Ro-
mance," and Vecsey's "Valse Triste" by the vio-
linist Mr. Donath, and Brahms "Rhapsody in G
THE LESTER CONCERT ENSEMBLE
Minor," Chopin's "Valse Brillante" and Mac-
Dowell's "Polonaise," as piano solos by Mr.
Mary Miller Mount, Accompanist; Jeno De Donath, Violinist, and Wilbur Evans, Bass
Wissow. Mary Miller Mount played the accom-
Baritone, With the Lester Concert Grand
paniments to the vocal and violin numbers.
The first of the series of concerts was given Church of St. Stephen, Torresdale; The Media through the medium of this excellent group of
last October before the Beaver College faculty Club, Media; the Armory in Phoenixville and musicians, been introduced to the music-loving
public of Philadelphia in a most effective manner
and student body. Others have since been at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel.
Others will be given during the remaining and with results that have proven very gratify-
given before leading organizations of the city
including the Penn Athletic Club, the New winter season, with noted artists augmenting ing to its sponsors.
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