When people think of Hochstein, they often imagine school-aged students taking lessons. In actuality, Hochstein has students in a range of ages from 6 months all the way up to adults in their 90s. Many of Hochstein’s more mature students take classes to pick up where they left off years ago, or to take the opportunity later in life to learn something new – something that have always wanted to try.
Joseph Mancini has been a voice student of Sandra Boysen Sluberski at The Hochstein School since his early ‘80s and gave his first recital in 2015 and a second one in 2017 at age 88.
A retired businessman and elementary school teacher in the Webster school system, Mancini has sung all his life and even took voice lessons 60 years ago, but has found the greatest joy and satisfaction from his classes at Hochstein.
Here’s his story.