Lilias Mackinnon

In Mackinnon gave concerts of piano works by Scriabin in London, beginning in 1917.[3][5] In 1918 she joined Mary Ramsay and Oscar Beringer for a benefit concert of works to two pianos, at London's Aeolian Hall.[6] In 1933 she played at the BBC Proms concerts at Queen's Hall.[7] Her cousin, archaeologist Aileen Fox, remembered seeing a concert by Mackinnon at Wigmore Hall.[8][9] She toured Canada[10][11] and the United States[12] several times in the 1930s.[13][14]

Critics generally praised Mackinnon's technique and choice of programme,[6] though Scriabin was considered quite "futuristic" in the 1920s.[15][16] Ezra Pound described her playing as having "a fluid, not an architecture manner; it is not a confusion."[17] The Guardian expressed admiration for her charm and intelligent choices in 1932, but some disappointment at her restraint, when "something more of audacity is wanted."[18] The Oakland Tribune's critic highlighted her "meticulous taste" and "refined and poetic sensibility".[19]

Mackinnon devised her own method of memorising piano music, which she taught by correspondence. In 1935, she conducted a summer music school in St. Andrews.[20] She wrote Music by Heart (1938), "the only non-technical book in English devoted primarily to memorization", and "a classic", according to a 1955 review.[21]

During World War II, Mackinnon taught at Dominican College in California, and at Bradley Polytechnic Institute in Illinois.[22] She lectured on musical memory in Chicago in 1942,[23] in New York in 1945,[24] and at a piano clinic in North Carolina in 1956.[4] Composer Nancy Laird Chance was one of her students.[25]

Alexander Stuart-Hill painted Mackinnon's portrait in about 1920; she donated that painting to the Perth Art Gallery.[26] Maurice Besly dedicated a 1928 composition to Mackinnon.[27] She also donated some of her sister's art to the Smithsonian American Art Museum.[28][29]