This wonderful article appeared in the Scotsman on Thu 6 Apr 2006
JANE BRADLEY
She was regarded as one of the greatest concert pianists of her generation, but has remained almost unknown in her hometown.
Now composer and musician Helen Hopekirk is to be honoured in Portobello for the first time to mark the 150th anniversary of her birth.
One of the few female composers and professional musicians of the time, she toured Europe performing piano concertos, and rubbed shoulders with the likes of Tchaikovsky and Liszt.
Local residents plan to erect a blue plaque at her birthplace in a flat above her father's former book and stationery shop on Portobello High Street to mark the anniversary.
Ms Hopekirk, who was born in 1856 and was a pupil at the Windsor Lodge Academy in Portobello, left Scotland to train at the Leipzig Conservatory in 1874 and later became a well-known performer and teacher at a college in Boston, USA, where she died in 1945.
Hopekirk experts Dr Gary Steigerwalt and his wife Dr Dana Muller, from Boston, have arranged a programme of 13 of Ms Hopekirk's pieces to be played at St Mark's Episcopal Church on Portobello High Street.
Archie Foley, former chairman of Portobello History Society, said:
"Gary got in touch looking for some information about Helen Hopekirk's early life in Portobello, and I had to admit, I had never heard of her. But after doing some research, we realised how important she is to Portobello."
Portobello councillor Maureen Child added: "The more sons and daughters of Portobello we can commemorate, the better. The career she had was quite amazing for a woman at that time."
The concert, funded by the Hope Scott Trust and the East District and Edinburgh Council, will be held on May 19 at 7pm.
This article: http://heritage.scotsman.com/greatscots.cfm?id=529292006
Last updated: 06-Apr-06 14:59 BST
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