The Myra Hess concerts

Music in wartime

During the Second World War, the pianist Myra Hess put on concerts at the National Gallery to raise morale. Find out how the Gallery opened as a music venue

How the concerts started

Music for London

Discover how the concerts became popular with wartime Londoners

Playing through the bombing

Concerts in the Blitz

Bombs fall and the musicians play on. How Myra Hess and the Gallery coped during the Blitz

Meet the musicians

London's favourite wartime music: Bach or Stravinsky?

Concerts or art?

The campaign to keep the concerts after the end of the war

Who was Myra Hess?

What kind of a person was the famous pianist Myra Hess?

Behind the scenes

Feeding hungry concert goers and battling noisy church bells

Myra Hess today

Your chance to hear music from the Myra Hess era

Supported by Ernest Hecht

This online resource, dedicated to the work of Dame Myra Hess, was developed with the support of the Ernest Hecht Charitable Foundation. The Foundation was set up by Ernest Hecht OBE, one of England's major independent book publishers, with the aim of helping the disadvantaged and promoting the advancement of the arts and education.