Hotchkiss Philharmonic returns Nov. 2

The Hotchkiss School will kick off its 2024-2025 Philharmonic season on Saturday, Nov. 2, with a special performance headlined by internationally acclaimed violinist Siqing Lu. The concert will start at 7 p.m. and will run till 8:30 p.m. in the Katherine M. Elfers Hall.

The Hotchkiss Philharmonic was established in 2018 by Barbara Walsh Hostetter (class of ‘77) and Amos Hostetter to provide gifted young musicians with an opportunity to perform alongside successful professionals. The concerts remain free and open to all community members—no registration required.

The November Philharmonic will be marked by a solo from influential Chinese violinist Siqing Lu. With over five decades of experience, Lu made history in 1987 as the first Asian violinist to win the prestigious International Paganini Violin Competition. He has since served as the first Chinese soloist-in-residence with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in 2019-2020 and has been a judge for numerous prestigious musical competitions. He is currently the Artistic Director of both the National Center for the Performing Arts May Festival in Beijing and the Siqing Lu Shenzhen Futian International String Festival.

At Hotchkiss, Lu will perform Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 – one of the most popular violin concertos in solo violin repertoire.

Complementing Lu’s performance, Fabio Wirkowski, a head of the Hotchkiss visual and performing arts department and a founder of The Hotchkiss Philharmonic Orchestra, will conduct Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet and Mascagni’s Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana, an Italian one act opera.

Hotchkiss student musicians, 22 in total, who are a part of the orchestra will play the two pieces along with local musical professionals and teachers.

The next performance as a part of the Philharmonic season will be orchestrated on April 3, 2025. The upcoming concert on Nov. 2 will mark the beginning of a season rich in musical excellence and inspiring performances at Hotchkiss.

Latest News

East Canaan's CowPots to face the 'Sharks'

Amanda Freund of East Canaan will appear on the television show "Shark Tank" on April 4 to pitch CowPots.

Photo by Ruth Epstein

CANAAN — Fans of the television show “Shark Tank,” stay tuned. On Friday, April 4, Amanda Freund of East Canaan will be facing the panel, imploring members to invest in her unique product: cow poop.

Freund and her father Matthew Freund produce and market CowPots, which are made from the abundance of manure found on their dairy farm. Matthew Freund, realizing cows were producing more manure — 100 pounds per cow per day — than was needed for fertilizing fields for crops, came up with the concept of the pots. Years of trial-and-error experimentation finally resulted in success. In 2006 he began selling the biodegradable pots using 100% composted manure to local stores. Now the pots can be found in outlets across the country, as well as internationally.

Keep ReadingShow less
Hotchkiss lacrosse ices Kingswood Oxford 19-0

LAKEVILLE — The Hotchkiss School opened the girls varsity lacrosse season with a big win in the snow against Kingswood Oxford School.

The Bearcats won 19-0 in a decisive performance March 26. Twelve different players scored for Hotchkiss, led by Coco Sheronas with four goals.

Keep ReadingShow less
HVRHS releases second quarter honor roll

FALLS VILLAGE — Principal Ian Strever announces the second quarter marking period Honor Roll at Housatonic Valley Regional High School for the 2024-2025 school year.

Highest Honor Roll

Grade 9: Parker Beach (Cornwall), Mia Belter (Salisbury), Lucas Bryant (Cornwall), Addison Green (Kent), Eliana Lang (Salisbury), Alison McCarron (Kent), Katherine Money (Kent), Mira Norbet (Sharon), Abigail Perotti (North Canaan), Karmela Quinion (North Canaan), Owen Schnepf (Wassaic), Federico Vargas Tobon (Salisbury), Emery Wisell (Kent).

Keep ReadingShow less
Thomas Ditto

ANCRAMDALE — Thomas Ditto of Ancramdale, born Thomas David DeWitt Aug. 11, 1944 in New York City changing his surname to Ditto at marriage, passed peacefully on Pi Day, March 14, 2025. He was a husband, father, artist, scientist, Shakespeare scholar, visionary, inventor, actor, mime, filmmaker, clown, teacher, lecturer, colleague, and friend. Recipient of numerous grants, awards and honors in both the arts and sciences, a Guggenheim and NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts fellow, he was a creative genius beyond his time. In addition to authoring scores of papers, he held several patents and invented the first motion capture system and the Ditto-scope, a radically new kind of telescope. He was a pioneer in computer generated video, film, and performance.

When not hard at work, he was always there to help when needed and he knew how to bring smiles to faces. He loved his family and pets and was supportive of his wife’s cat rescue work.

Keep ReadingShow less