From the archives, Nov. 9, 1928: The Monitor on a Pinkston piano recital

Omaha Commons revisits reporting from The Monitor, bringing a Pinkston piano recital to today's readers.

OMAHA — The pupils of piano teacher Mrs. Florentine F. Pinkston gave a recital at Salem Baptist Church in the fall of 1928, and The Monitor, Omaha's Black weekly newspaper, carried the story on its Nov. 9 front page. The paper said an appreciative audience heard the program "last Thursday evening."

Mrs. Pinkston's pupils were in various stages of advancement. The Monitor praised the advanced pupils for handling difficult pieces with brilliance and said the younger ones showed careful musicianship. It credited teacher and pupils alike with "careful training and preparation."

The evening also held two contests. Marjory Bolden, Edrose Willis and Sylvia Adams each played Virgil's Concert Mazurka, and the prize went to Edrose Willis, though the paper noted that many in the audience expected a tie between the first two players. Helen Hunigan and Virginia Jackson then played Pieczonka's Tarantella, and the judges declared a tie. Mrs. Pinkston judged alongside Mr. and Mrs. Karl Tunberg.

The printed program listed 24 performances, from a Spaulding berceuse to a Paderewski minuet and two pieces by Grieg. The last was Beethoven's Sonata Pathetique, played by Willa Hays.

The same front page carried The Monitor's report on that week's election.

Nearly a century later, the program still keeps the names of the young musicians and the pieces they played.

Source: The Monitor (Omaha), Nov. 9, 1928, page 1, via the Library of Congress, Chronicling America.

How we checked this: Reported from The Monitor (Omaha) of Nov. 9, 1928, page 1, on the Library of Congress's Chronicling America, opened Nov. 9, 2026, at 5:23 a.m. CT and re-opened at 7:42 a.m. CT (OCR via LoC text service), and checked against the record by our copy desk before publishing.