Piano concert at Hinkle Fieldhouse

Description:	Eight hundred twenty five people played 125 grand pianos at Hinkle Fieldhouse on May 3, 1936. Organized by Sigma Alpha Iota, International Music Fraternity, the concerts kicked off the start of National Music Week and featured both an afternoon and an evening performance. Concert tickets were 50 cents and the profits went towards the organizations scholarship and student funds. The pianists, who were selected from throughout Indiana, played in four groups of 200 people, with two people at each piano, while the remaining 25 people were guest artists of the organization. The piano players ranged in age from nine years old to adults and they played in groups based on their ages. Frank O. Wilking conducted the concerts, which also featured a combined choir of approximately one hundred people from Butler University and the Arthur Jordan Conservatory of Music, conducted by Donald C. Gilley, Professor of Music at the University. Blue and white fabric covered Hinkle Fieldhouses rafters and a replica of the organizations pin, gold pan pipes circled in gold and set with pearls, hung from the ceiling. The baskets of flowers by the conductor contained 1,000 red roses, Sigma Alpha Iotas flower, given by the Wurlitzer Company, which manufactured all of the pianos featured in the concerts. The fenced off sections at the right of the photograph are likely the box seats that were created for these concerts. A May 1, 1936, article in the Indianapolis Times titled Music Spectacle, referred to the upcoming concerts as colossal: the biggest thing of its kind ever attempted! Such superlatives usually are reserved for sports events, circuses, conventions, and such. This time they apply to the spectacle of a 125 grand piano ensemble (p. 20). At the time, it was considered to be the worlds largest piano recital, but the current Guinness World Record is held by the Blüthner Piano Group, who staged a 639 person piano recital on October 6, 2018, in Hengshui, Hebei, China, with each person playing at a separate piano.
Origin:	1936-05-03
Created By:	Bass Photo Company
Source:	http://palni.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/BldgsGrnds/id/973
Collection:	Butler University Buildings and Grounds Collection
Rights:	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/
Copyright:	In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
Geography:	Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, 39.843607, -86.167299 39.843607 -86.167299
Subjects:	Butler University--Buildings College buildings Field houses Sports facilities Gymnasiums Basketball arenas Piano Pianists Wurlitzer Company Concerts Sigma Alpha Iota Butler University--Choral organizations Arthur Jordan Conservatory of Music--Choral organizations Choirs (Music) Conductors (Music) College teachers Butler University--Faculty Butler University--Employees Bunting (Cloth) Roses Baskets Fences Butler University--History Indianapolis (Ind.)--History People Hinkle Fieldhouse Butler Fieldhouse Gilley, Donald C. Wilking, Frank O. National Music Week Fairview campus

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