A much loved and renowned figure in Chester’s music scene and beyond for decades has sadly died.
Lila Hallett, 86, who was still teaching until shortly before her death, had been a piano teacher and accompanist since she was 17 as well as a music teacher in four Chester schools for 20 years, a lifelong accompanist to musicians for concerts and examinations and a pianist for ballet classes.
Over the years she organised numerous musical events for charitable fundraising activities including the British Heart Foundation, Friends of the Phil and the Breast Care Unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
Mrs Hallett was instrumental in proposing the Young Musician of Chester competition and, as accompanist and supporter, in helping to establish the Chester Music Society Youth Choir in 1988.
For almost 40 years she was involved with the Chester Music Festival and worked as a programme secretary and committee member for Chester Music Society for more than 30 years.
Above all she devoted her life to participating in and involving others in music with numerous individuals and organisations in Chester owing much to her support.
She was particularly devoted to encouraging young people to play and enjoy music and contributed to the People to People Lakewood scholarship committee which chooses a talented musician each year from Chester to exchange with one from Colorado USA.
Mrs Hallett received the Outstanding Contribution Award in Chester’s first Community and Voluntary Arts Awards.
Presenting the award to Mrs Hallett, David Woods, chairman of the Voluntary Arts Network which organised the awards, said: “Numerous individuals and organisation owe a lot to encouragement from Lila who is always openly supportive of genuine talent and effort.
“Although in her ninth decade she continues to teach and accompany at exams and actively encourages older people to play the piano.”
More recently she was recognised for her ‘outstanding contribution’ to music in the city receiving the prestigious Lady Hilary Groves Prize in 2016.
The prize is awarded to only one individual in the UK each year for their work in the community.
Chester pianist John Gough, senior tutor in piano at the Royal Northern College of Music, said at the time: “In my view music in Chester and district would have been much poorer without Lila’s considerable and unstinting input and foresight.”
In 2014 Mrs Hallett stepped into the shoes of late husband Geoff, an architect who shared her musical interests and sought repairs to the former stone bridge on Cheyney Road on the site of a medieval anchorage on the Dee.
The bridge carried Cheyney Road over Finchett’s Gutter until the stream was diverted in the early 1970s. Mrs Hallett insisted it needed attention and repairs were carried out.
