‘Ensemble of the Year’ to Perform in Hockett Series

The Kalichstein- Laredo- Robinson Trio will give the second performance in the Shirley and Chas Hockett Chamber Music Concert Series. Named after two longtime educators, the series honors the Hocketts’ love of music and devotion to Ithaca College and its School of Music. The free concert, which will present works by Beethoven, Shostakovich, and Mendelssohn, will take place on Monday, January 28, at 8:15 p.m. in Ford Hall. The Kalichstein-Laredo- Robinson Trio debuted in 1977 for President Jimmy Carter’s inauguration, and since then pianist Joseph Kalichstein, violinist Jaime Laredo, and cellist Sharon Robinson have set the standard for performance of the piano trio literature. One of the few chamber ensembles to retain all its original members for as long as a quarter of a century, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio performs annually at many of the world’s major concert halls, commissions spectacular new works, and maintains an active recording schedule. Memorable performances have included the concert for Carnegie Hall’s centennial celebration; the Beethoven cycle in Lincoln Center --- the first time the complete Beethoven piano trios were performed there --- and concerts with orchestras across the United States and Europe of new works written especially for the trio by David Ott and Pulitzer Prize winner Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio has performed in Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen, Lisbon, London, Vienna, and Paris and has toured Japan, New Zealand, and Australia several times.

The magazine Musical America recently named the trio "ensemble of the year" for 2002. Past honorees have included the Beaux Arts Trio and the Emerson String Quartet. In addition, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson International Trio Award was recently created by Lois Beznos, president of the Chamber Music Society of Detroit, to recognize the trio’s artistic achievement and contribution to music as well as to encourage the careers of young piano trios.

The first performance in the Shirley and Chas Hockett Chamber Music Concert Series was given by the Bach Aria Group on October 25, 2000, the anniversary of the day Shirley and Chas Hockett first met in a mathematics course at the University of Michigan. Chas, who passed away in November 2000, 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 with 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.

Whereas Chas began performing in early childhood, Shirley did not play an instrument until she was 57, when she began studying the clarinet. Within a year she was performing publicly as a member of the Ithaca Concert Band, alongside Chas, who played the bass clarinet. Both were active with the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, and Shirley, who was president of the board of directors from 1979 to 1984, continues to serve on the CCO board as director emerita.

The Hocketts’ sustained support for the School of Music led Ithaca College to establish the chamber music series, for which Shirley has provided a permanent endowment.

The Shirley and Chas Hockett Library of Ensemble Music in the James J. Whalen Center for Music was named in their honor in 1999, and in April 2002 a dedication concert will be held for the Whalen Center’s newly named Hockett Family Recital Hall.