HochStories

At the Hochstein All-Faculty Meeting on Tuesday, September 7, Hochstein President & Executive Director Margaret Quackenbush recognized Hochstein Violin Instructor Kathy Tarantelli and Assistant Director of the Hochstein Philharmonia Orchestra Matt Osika as the winners of the 2021 Faculty Service Award.

​​​​​​​Eleanor Lenoe began studying at Hochstein when she was 15. The summer before her sophomore year of high school, a friend who was already involved encouraged her to audition for the Hochstein Youth Symphony Orchestra. The friends and the bonds Eleanor made during her time at Hochstein will stick with her forever.

The CelloVision 2021 summer camp this past August included interactive workshops, masterclasses, and daily Cello Ensemble. Camp coordinator Natalie Spehar provided some photos of the week’s activities with Hochstein faculty members Jennifer Carpenter, Rachel Mills, Pia Liptak, and John Delmonico. A highlight of the week was a masterclass with David Ying, cellist with the Ying Quartet.

Brynn Peters and Caroline Fountain started music classes at Hochstein at the same time at age 3, first in Little Singers with Alice Pratt, then joining Hochstein Youth Singers with Director Maryellen Giese in fourth grade. Now they are high school seniors, with 15 years of singing together at Hochstein. Caroline says, “I really owe it to my parents for signing me up for Hochstein. I think I would not be the same person today if I didn’t go to Hochstein.”

Violin student Chris Han and his sister Jeslyn started studying with Marcos Kreutzer in 2008. This year, Chris graduates high school. Both he and his sister have been in all the Hochstein orchestras as well as taking piano and Suzuki lessons at Hochstein. At his June 5 recital, Chris thanked Marcos, saying, “You’ve taught me invaluable lessons about not only violin but life."

Meet Sara Ward, currently a sophomore at Churchville-Chili High School, who has been playing saxophone for 6 years, since fourth grade. Sara began taking private saxophone lessons online with Hochstein instructor Nancy Boone-Bahr during the onset of the pandemic in March 2020. Her first in-person lesson was just two weeks before her solo fest recording in April 2021.

The new “Play for Your Life” musical action-adventure game with Warner Iveris wrapped up last week. During the class, the kids traveled to various places and battled evil forces, using their musical talents. The kids played a variety of music from Bach and Suzuki to Europe’s “The Final Countdown” and also composed their own music.

It’s National “Love Your Pet Day” on February 20, so we asked Hochstein faculty and staff to send in photos of themselves and their companion animals. Lots of cats, dogs, and even chickens! Read stories about our people and their pets.

Voice instructor Elizabeth Lind, who joined the Hochstein faculty this past fall, issued a song challenge to students in her voice studio at the beginning of the year, hoping to inspire them to explore different genres of music. The song challenge is in the form of a grid with different topics for them to work on. She says, “I was inspired by the idea of New Year’s resolutions but wanted to expand it for lessons. Each student is completing this at their own pace.”

With 2020 now behind us, we took a look at all that happened during Hochstein’s 100th anniversary year. Although not all of our centennial celebrations took place as planned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many exciting things did happen during the year. Hochstein’s faculty and staff quickly pivoted to offering online lessons and classes and worked together to find solutions to myriad new challenges.