MUSICAL
TIMES
PRESTO
Established
1881
Established
1884'
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY
10 Cents a Copy
CHICAGO, SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 1927
PROGRESS OF PIANO
PLAYING CONTEST
Thousands of Chicago Children Enrolled and
Prominent Music Schools Have Entered
Their Pupils in Tournament Sponsored by
the Clubs, Associations and Trade.
VIEWS OF PIANO LEADERS
Every Indication of an Event That Will Stir Wide-
spread Interest in the Piano and Stimulate
Demand for Instruments.
Activities in the Chicago Piano Playing Contest
are kept well alive by the energetic committee in
whose hands the work has been placed. Thousands of
children^and 'their parents have become interested in
the plans and more . than three thousand children
have, so far, filed applications for entry to the con-
tests: this notwithstanding that less than ten per
cent of the list of names and the sources to be
reached in the mailing department have been utilized.
Within the next few days, certainly by the first week
in February, the committee hopes to have gotten in
touch with all these prospective sources.
Broadcasting the Contest.
A series of talks and piano demonstrations is now
to be started over the radio from Twin Stations
WEBH and WJJD, directed by the Herald and
Examiner. The artist wil first give a talk on the
piano playing tournament and then play each of the
piano pieces in each division which the child must
play in the tournament.
Last Saturday the artist-demonstrator was Paul
Ash, of the Oriental Theater orchestra; this week
Saturday it will be Sig. Del Lampe, conductor of the
Trianon orchestra; next week Art Kahn, director
Senate Theater orchestra, will be at the microphone,
followed a week later by the eminent pianist, Mois-
saye Boguslawski.
Liberally Supported.
The latest music firm to join in the fund for sup-
porting the tournament is the Joseph Budrick Piano
House, 3417 South Halsted street, Chicago. All the
Chicago music houses are in accord with the move-
ment and practically all have subscribed to the fund
in support of the movement. The list, now a large
one, it should not be forgotten, includes the Chicago
Piano Club, with a One Thousand Dollar subscrip-
tion.
Particulars of the contest have appeared in earlier
issues of Presto-Times. The Chicago Herald-Exam-
iner one day this week published the following brief
views of prominent piano men in attendance at the
meetings of National Association committees at the
Hotel La Salle last week.
Enthusiasm Expressed.
"The playing tournament will surely stimulate a
great interest in music through competitioJi," said
Max J. De Rochemont of New York, president of the
National Piano Manufacturers' Association.
Edward H. Uhl, president of the National Associa-
tion of Music Merchants, said: "The plan works out
in a great manner, for nothing can create such a won-
derful atmosphere as a piano."
E. R. Jacobson, Hammond, Ind., president of the
Music Industries Chamber of Commerce, said: "Chi-
cago and its suburbs have many wonderful piano
players, but owing to lack of competition their talent
lies dormant.
A great awakening ought to be
brought about by means of this musical tournament."
Others who spoke highly of the tournament that
is being ^sponsored by the largest musical organiza-
tions in the country and the Herald and Examiner
are Edmund C. Johnson of Chicago, president of the
Musical Supply Association of America, and Matt J.
Kennedy of Chicago, president of the National Piano
Travelers Association.
Up to the present time more than fifteen hundred
boys and girls from all sections of Chicago and sub-
urbs have registered for participation in the tourna-
ment.
The tournament is open to all pupils enrolled in
public, parochial and private schools and pupils of
individual teachers of Chicago and vicinity. The
Annual Greater Chicago Children's Piano Playing
Tournament, is sponsored by the National Bureau for
the Advancement of Music, New York; the Apollo
Club, Chicago; the Mendelssohn Club, Chicago; Chi-
cago Singverein and the Chicago Herald and Ex-
aminer.
Music Schools Enter.
Among the music teachers who have registered
their pupils in the tournament are L. B. Murdock
of the Lombard School of Music; Glen Dillard
Gunn, 421 South Wabash avenue; Joseph M. Moos,
405 South Homan avenue; Bertha M. Fitzek, 714
Aldine avenue; Mathilde L. Reiners of the Ravens-
wood Studio of Fine Arts; Arthur C. Becker, dean,
DePaul University School of Music; Anna Hyatt,
1427 Kimball Hall; Sarah Lipstein, 1518 South Clifton
Park avenue; Helen F. Hamal of the American Con-
servatory of Music; Mabel Wrede Hunter, 64 East
Van Buren street, and ; Miss Marion Lychenheim,
2030 Touhy avenue.
$2 The Year
SURPRISED BY HIS**
# OWN '^PERFORMANCE
Ernest Urchs of Steinway & Sons Learns Thjat
Visiting a Recording Laboratory Sometimes
Has More Lasting Effects Than Expected.
The following very pretty story appeared in the
January issue of "The Aeolian," the artistic appearing
house organ of the Aeolian Company of New York:
One brisk fall day, a few months ago, our es-
teemed contemporary, Mr. Ernest Urchs of Steinway
& Sons, accepted the invitation of Mr. Laurence
Goodman, musical director of the Ward-Belmont
School for Girls at Nashville, Tennessee, to step into
Aeolian Hall and hear several recordings of Mr.
Goodman's playing which he had made last summer.
W. Creary Woods of the Duo-Art Recording De-
partment, wa-s-their host -e-iv this occasion and during
MAKER OF SETTERGREN GRAND
BACK FROM TRIP ABROAD
B. K. Settergren Said Last Year-Was a Good One,
and 1927 Will Be Better
B. K. Settergren, head of the grand piano industry
at Bluffton, IndT, which bears his iia'fhp, was in Chi-
cago this week, having returned on Thursday of last
week from a trip~io"""Swe"rtei L r T1 re" I Tt\> -To-Ms^ffative "
land was for purposes of peculiar sadness, for it was
largely to settle the estate of his mother, who died
recently.
Mr. Settergren was away about six weeks and is
already hard at work visiting his customers and the
trade in general. He has in contemplation a new line
of designs for his popular grands which will still
further extend their demand.
During last year the business of the B. K. Setter-
gren Company far exceeded that of the twelve
months preceding. "We came within less than twenty
per cent of my best anticipations," said Mr. Setter-
gren to a Presto-Times man, "and I expect that this
year we will do even better."
UNDECIDED AS BETWEEN THE
TWO WORLD'S GREATEST
Reaction of Herman Irion on Hearing of Chicago
Eulogized with Challenge to New York.
At. the Piano Association dinner last Thursday
night, after listening to the patriotic boom for Chi-
cago as the great metropolis of the world, given out
in Dr. J. Paul Goode's illustrated lecture, Herman
Irion, of Steinway & Sons, was facetiously asked
if he had not better give up New York and make
Chicago his future home. Mr. Irion retorted by say-
ing that although he felt nearly persuaded since lis-
tening to the learned professor, nevertheless he
thought he should withhold his decision until he
could have the opportunity of again hearing a lecture
on the same topic.
MUSIC MAN IN MOVIES.
George S. McLaughlin, of Lyon & Healy, son of
Mr. McLaughlin, the proprietor of the McLaughlin
Movie Show System, will assist his father next week
when two new McLaughlin shows are to be opened.
One of the new movies is in Chicago, the other at
Glen Ellyn, the beautiful western suburb, known as
the Auditorium, a handsome building just completed
on Crescent boulevard, opposite the Chicago &
Northwestern station. It contains a great Barton
organ and is one of the largest suburban movie houses
of northern Illinois.
CHEZ PIERRE DINNER DANCE.
Members of the Piano Club of Chicago have been
provided with cards to fill out for reservations for the
informal dinner dance at Chez Pierre on. Tuesday
evening, February 1. The charge is $2.50 per plate
and no couvert charge will be- made. The cards
should be filled out with the number of accommoda-
tions desired and mailed as soon as possible to Roger
O'Connor, 77 East Jackson boulevard.
EKNKST URCHS.
.
the visit he aroused Mr. Urchs' interest by telling him
of the excellent qualities of the Steinway Recording
Concert Grand on which the great artists make their
recordings. Mr. Urchs, who is a musician himself,
stirred by Mr. Wood's enthusiasm, evinced a desire
to try this unusually fine instrument. Having already
listened to Mr. Goodman's splendid records there
seemed no reason why Mr. Urchs shouldn't try the
piano then and there. This he did—his fingers stray-
ing into a charming improvisation of his own which
had never been written out. His audience enthusias-
tically requested another selection and he responded
with a second number of his own composition.
Imagine Mr. Urchs' surprise when he Avas informed
by Mr. Woods, who had previously made arrange-
ments for this little surprise party, that while he was
playing, the recording instrument had been acting the
part of eavesdropper and had reproduced every note
of Mr. Urchs' two compositions on a Duo-Art roll
To Mr. Urchs' further amazement in about five min-
utes, he had the pleasure of listening for the first time
to the recorded reproduction of his own playing.
As he later expressed it to C. A. Addams of the
Wholesale Department, "It sounded much better than
I thought I could play," but Mrs. Urchs who heard
it later said, "It sounds exactly like Ernest—after
dinner at the piano with a cigar in his mouth!"
It was the suggestion of W. H. Alfring, vice-presi-
dent of The Aeolian Company, to have a number of
the rolls made up for Mr. Urchs for Christmas dis-
tribution among certain of his business associates—•
but that is another story in itself.
ARTHUR WESSELL IN CHICAGO.
Arthur Wessell, of Wessell, Nickel & Gross, New
York, arrived in Chicago last Thursday. He came as
a member of the Chamber of Music Industries and
attended the meetings of that body on Thursday and
Friday.
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