Hotchkiss Presents Orchestral Music Performed By Students and Professionals

There’s a new orchestra in town.

The Hotchkiss Philharmonic Orchestra was established in 2018 through the generosity of Barbara Walsh Hostetter (Hotchkiss ’77) and her husband, Amos. The orchestra combines a group of outstanding professional musicians drawn from the region with talented Hotchkiss music students, giving the students the unique opportunity to work and perform alongside seasoned artists.

“This is the essence of experiential learning!” exclaimed Fabio Witkowski, head of the Visual and Performing Arts at The Hotchkiss School in Lake­ville, speaking in his usual superlatives. “Students get a professional experience, go through the rigors of professional rehearsal with outstanding conductors, perform with amazing professionals — and the audience is there.”

“The enthusiasm of the students,” he said, “is incredible. And the ‘collateral,’ so to speak, is generating beautiful music with open doors, free to the public.”

Some of that music will be played by Witkowski himself, in the Hotchkiss Philharmonic’s opening gala concert on Oct. 4. He will be the featured soloist in the well-loved first piano concerto by Tchaikovsky — the one that begins with blaring horn and rising, fortissimo octave chords on the piano — as part of the all-Tchaikovsky program.

Noam Ginsparg (Hotchkiss ’22) will take the stage as soloist in the “Rococo Variations” for cello and orchestra. Ginsparg is a weekend student at Juilliard and winner or finalist in a number of concerto competitions. He hails from Ithaca, N.Y. Marc Moncusí, a native of Spain and international conductor, will lead the orchestra, closing the concert with Tchaikovsky’s crowd-pleasing favorite, “Capriccio Italien.”

For Witkowski, the Hotchkiss Philharmonic — and students like Ginsparg — are the realization of a remarkable evolution of the school’s music program into a virtual conservatory. “We have two equally important missions,” Witkowski said, “to offer a professional-level music experience and a rigorous liberal arts education. And it’s not only for students who become professional musicians. Just as with sports, whether as a professional or amateur, you get the full benefit by ‘doing it.’”

“This just makes me so happy,” he adds.

The Hotchkiss Philharmonic Orchestra performs its debut concert on Oct. 4 at 8 p.m. in Katherine M. Elfers Hall, Esther Eastman Music Center, The Hotchkiss School, 11 Interlaken Road, Lakeville, CT 06039. The concert is free and open to the public. For information, go to www.hotchkiss.org.