There are keyboard players whose names adorn books of technical exercises – Carl Czerny, Charles-Louis Hanon and JB Cramer spring to mind – but Mitzi Meyerson, Glossa’s very own expert in sumo wrestling, social work and a Persian cat named Yofi, is cast from a somewhat different mould. It will not just be piano and harpsichord students who will have cause to recall the Chicago-born artist but any number of her fellow citizens (including non keyboard-playing cabbies) now that the ‘Mitzi Meyerson Way’ has officially been opened outside the main entrance to Roosevelt University on downtown Wabash Avenue in Chicago’s 2nd Ward.
A resolution was passed in Chicago City Hall to declare April 2, 2009 as Mitzi Meyerson Day throughout Chicago and its environs, commemorating Meyerson’s “outstanding contributions to the field of classical music and the education of its future artists.” Meyerson was the first person in the school’s history to graduate with a degree in harpsichord and returned to Chicago from her teaching duties as a Professor at the Universität der Künste in Berlin to accept the resolution from Alderman Robert W. Fioretti and can also be seen here outside her alma mater proudly holding aloft the street name honouring her and her contributions to musical life.
In a recent interview for Glossa marking the release of her latest album dedicated to the music of Theofilo Muffat, Meyerson modestly commented, “It was a charming surprise to get a public notice for this. I always thought there were around eleven people in the world who were interested in my little projects!” She now knows better!
Read more (PDF): Resolution of the City of Chicago
© 2009 Glossa Music