Dame Myra Hess Day

The National Gallery’s 2011 Dame Myra Hess Day celebrates and remembers the wartime concerts arranged by Myra Hess and Howard Ferguson.

The arts, Myra Hess believed, played a powerful spiritual role in the health of the nation at the best of times – during wartime they were of even greater importance. The wartime concerts she organised with composer Howard Ferguson were performed five days a week between 10 October 1939 and 10 April 1946.

Dame Myra Hess Day events

1–2.15pm
Lunchtime Concert Room 36
The Ionian Singers, a chamber choir of about 35 vocalists with an international reputation, perform with conductor Timothy Salter, Professor at the Royal College of Music. Their programme includes music by Elgar, Parry, Stanford, Holst, Howells and English Folk Song arrangements.

3.30pm
Afternoon Performance Sainsbury Wing Theatre
Award-winning actress Patricia Routledge and international concert pianist Piers Lane tell the extraordinary story of Myra Hess and the National Gallery wartime concerts. In Dame Myra’s own words, and in piano music associated with her, we recall how her ‘great adventure’ began – and how it continued while bombs rained down on London.

7.30–9pm
Evening Concert Room 36
The evening concert features a performance by Tasmin Little (violin), Piers Lane (piano), Andrew Tortise (tenor), Fibonacci Sequence and the Menuhin School Orchestra. The programme includes music by Howard Ferguson – who worked tirelessly with Myra Hess running the wartime concerts – alongside pieces by Bach, Schubert and Mahler. The concert will also feature the world premiere of a new work composed by Oscar nominated composer Benjamin Wallfisch, ‘The External Window’.

About Dame Myra Hess Day

This is the fifth annual Dame Myra Hess Day. The concerts have been devised and directed by Piers Lane, international concert pianist. Lane is Artistic Director of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Professor at the Royal Academy of Music and well known as a broadcaster for BBC Radio 3.

Supported by The Ernest Hecht Charitable Foundation.

The foundation was set up some years ago by Ernest Hecht, one of England’s major independent book publishers, with the aim of helping the disadvantaged and promoting the advancement of the arts and education.