Hocketts Chamber Music Series Debuts

A new chamber music series will debut at the School of Music this fall, thanks to the generosity of two longtime supporters. Professor emerita of mathematics Shirley Hockett and her husband, Chas, the Goldwin Smith Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Linguistics at Cornell University, have provided funding for so much at the School of Music that the College has established a series in their honor.

"We are extremely grateful for the sustained support the Hocketts have given to the School of Music," says Dean Arthur Ostrander. "Given their love of chamber music, it seemed most appropriate to establish the Shirley and Chas Hockett Chamber Music Series as a lasting testimony to their support for Ithaca College."

The first performance in the new series will be by the Bach Aria Group on Wednesday, October 25. Performances in the following two seasons will feature the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio and Tashi with Richard Stoltzman.

Music has long played an integral part in the lives of the Hockett family. Chas Hockett is a composer of solo and chamber music as well as an opera, Doña Rosita, that was first performed by the Ithaca Opera Association in the 1970s. Each of the Hocketts’ five children played instruments and studied music while growing up. Two daughters, Alpha and Carey, have gone on to become professional musicians. Alpha, a pianist, recently performed chamber and solo works composed by her father in a recital at the James J. Whalen Center for Music. Her husband, David Weiss, principal oboist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, shared the stage with her. Shirley Hockett, having escorted her children to countless music lessons throughout the years, decided at age 57 that it was her turn to learn an instrument. After a year of clarinet lessons, she joined her husband in the Ithaca Concert Band, where they perform beside each other. (He plays bass clarinet.)

As a faculty member at Ithaca College, Shirley Hockett was instrumental in establishing a chapter of the Phi Kappa Phi honor society; she was its first president. She gives credit to her colleagues and to the College for supporting her pursuit of professional activities, including the writing of six mathematics books, during her teaching career. The decision to donate to the College, she reports, came naturally. "The College has been so good to us throughout the years," she says. "When we started thinking about helping others, the School of Music was a perfect fit."