Dame Julia Myra Hess (1890-1965) was a British pianist, best known for her performances of the works of Bach, Beethoven, Schubert and Mozart. Her debut came in 1907 when she...
Dame Julia Myra Hess (1890-1965) was a British pianist, best known for her performances of the works of Bach, Beethoven, Schubert and Mozart. Her debut came in 1907 when she played Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 with Sir Thomas Beecham conducting. Throughout World War II, during the blackouts, she organised almost 2,000 lunchtime concerts spanning the entire length of the war; they were held in the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square and Hess played in 150 of them. King George VI made her a Dame of the British Empire. She also had a surprising link to jazz, having given lessons in the 1920s to Ivy Brubeck, mother of Dave Brubeck.