Concert Will Celebrate the Life of Longtime Friend Chas Hockett

A concert honoring the memory of the longtime Ithaca College supporter, "A Mostly Musical Celebration of the Life of Charles F. Hockett" will be held on Sunday, April 29, at 4:00 p.m. in the recital hall. The event is free and open to the public.

"Chas" Hockett (right), who passed away last November, enjoyed a distinguished academic career at Cornell University, from which he retired in 1982 as the Goldwin Smith Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Linguistics. He also had a passion for music, which he shared with his wife, Shirley, professor emerita of mathematics at Ithaca College, and their five children. He wrote a number of works, including an opera, Doña Rosita, which was performed by the Ithaca Opera Association in the early 1970s. After retiring from Cornell, Hockett devoted himself to composing solo and chamber music.

The concert celebrating his life will feature several of his compositions, including Bagels, a duet for two clarinets performed by his wife and a daughter, Robin Rose. Other family members playing Hockett’s works will be two daughters, Alpha and Carey, and son-in-law David Weiss, principal oboist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The program will also include For Chas, a tribute by Dana Wilson, the Charles A. Dana Professor of Music, Theory, and Composition.

"An Evening at the Pops," the annual concert sponsored by the Friends of Ithaca College, was dedicated to the memory of Chas Hockett. That event took place April 1. Last fall the School of Music presented the inaugural performance in the Shirley and Chas Hockett Chamber Music Concert Series.

For more information call Alex Dippold in the School of Music at 274-3717.