Ongoing History Daily: Who played the first modern-style concert?

The idea of people gathering in one place to hear a live musical performance is something we just take for granted. But have you ever wondered who performed the first proper modern-style concert? The answer seems to be a guy named John Banister.

According to a 1936 publication called The Music Quarterly, Banister arranged to perform for a paying audience at his home in London sometime in 1672. There had been unaccountable public musical performances before this, of course, but the Banister gig seems to have been the first time the general public was invited to a show where they had to pay admission. And they paid just to hear Banister and no one else. The price of a ticket was one shilling.

After Banister started charging people to hear him play, other musicians did the same and by the 1700s, the modern concert industry had been born.