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History
In the midst of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, the Hutchinson Community Concert Association was founded. The stated purpose of the organization in its Constitution was and continues to be to build and maintain, through a non-profit plan, a permanent concert audience on a strictly membership basis; to cultivate in the citizens of Hutchinson and its surrounding area an interest in good music or other entertainment; to own a piano or other equipment necessary to conduct the presented entertainment; and to be engaged in the teaching of music, the history of music, and the appreciation of music. The Association’s first concert season was in 1936-37 when they presented four concerts that included an opera singer, a classical violinist, a classical guitarist, and a jazz guitarist. The group originally booked their programs through Columbia Artists that would later become Trawick Artists. Signers of the first contract with Columbia Artists were W.D.P. Carey, Erle Faber, Buford Hayden, and Mrs. Don Ingle. In 2002, Trawick went bankrupt leaving it to the Association to book their own acts. We currently book our programs through Allied Concert Services out of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Our concerts are presented in Hutchinson’s historic Memorial Hall, formerly known as Convention Hall. President William Howard Taft helped lay the cornerstone for the hall in 1911. Over the years the Association’s concert seasons have included many notable artists including Peter Nero, Ferrante and Teicher, Roger Williams, Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians, the Dallas Brass, the New Christy Minstrels, and the Vienna Boys Choir. With the passage of time, the musical tastes of the audiences have changed, and the Association attempts to keep pace with those changes.
The Association has presented concerts every year since that first season with only two exceptions. During World War II, the 1943-44 season was cancelled mainly due to gasoline rationing. The second cancelled season was the 2020-2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Our Association strives to continue presenting high quality entertainment at a reasonable price to the people of Hutchinson and the surrounding area.
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