KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — He is considered as one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century and 80 years ago, he took his final bow in Knoxville.
Composer Sergei Rachmaninoff played his last recital at the University of Tennessee in 1943, an occasion forever immortalized with a statue in World’s Fair Park.
Rachmaninoff played in Knoxville twice during his career. Once on January 21, 1925, at the Lyric Theater and 18 years later on February 17, 1943, at the University of Tennessee Memorial Auditorium.
Mary Pickle, who studied and played Rachmaninoff’s music as a child, was 17 when she attended his show at UT.
“Well, it’s overwhelming to know that you actually saw him in person. He played right there in front you, and that you know this wonderful music that you can hear on recordings in a live concert,” Pickle said.
A month after this concert, Rachmaninoff died of cancer a few days short of his 70th birthday.
More than 50 years later, Russian artist, Viktor Bokarov, created a sculpture of the musician and offered it to the city of Knoxville, who initially turned it down.
It ended up in the possession of Knoxville art gallery owner Jo Mason, who decided to keep it in her loft until it could be bronzed and put on display.
“I wouldn’t have known about the sculpture period had I not just talked to the gentleman who was friends with the sculptor and knew that he had spent three months in New Jersey, at his daughter’s, doing the sculpture to gift it from the heart,” Mason said.
Mason eventually sold her loft to Robert Loest who agreed to let the statue stay in his possession as part of their agreement.
“I would look at Rachmaninoff going up the stairs and think, ‘Wow, this is really cool, but it’s not because it shouldn’t be here. It should be out where people can see it," Loest said.
It took seven years and $80,000 in private donations, but in 2003, the Rachmaninoff statue was finally bronzed and put on display in World’s Fair Park for the public to enjoy.
The statue is still standing to this day and sits a mere 100 yards from where his final concert was held.