David Hochstein

David Hochstein (February 16, 1892 – October 1918) was an American virtuoso violinist from Rochester, New York. After enlisting in the United States Army during World War I, he was killed during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. In his honor, a music school was started in Rochester, and it now bears the name Hochstein School of Music & Dance.

Helena Zodokoff and Jacob Hochstein were both Russian Jews who had fled their home country; they met for the first time in Rochester. Jacob was said to be fluent in six languages. Helena, born in 1860, was the elder half-sister of future anarchist Emma Goldman, with whom she arrived in Rochester on January 1, 1886, joining their sister Lena and her husband.

Jacob and Helena were married in 1888. Their son David, born in 1892, demonstrated an aptitude for music from infancy, according to his father. For his fifth birthday, David received his first violin, a gift from his father, who became the boy's first instructor.

Around 1902, David Hochstein was playing his violin at the home of a friend whose father was architect J. Foster Warner.Emily Sibley Watson, a patron of the arts, lived next door to the Warners and heard Hochstein's playing. Watson, who was the daughter of Western Union president Hiram Sibley, recognized Hochstein's talent and took it upon herself to fund his further education both at home and abroad.

With Watson as benefactor, Hochstein studied under Otakar Ševčík in Vienna and later Leopold Auer in Saint Petersburg. By 1914, Watson had prevailed upon George Eastman, the photography magnate who was Rochester's most influential philanthropist and artistic patron, to loan a pair of violins to Hochstein. One of the violins was a 1715 Stradivarius; the other was a 1735 Landolfi. Hochstein began playing across the United States and Europe, making his Carnegie Hall debut in 1915. By this time, it was clear Hochstein was a rising star and destined for greatness. He made his only recordings for Emerson Records in early 1917, of Fritz Kreisler's "Liebesleid", Cesar Cui's "Orientale", and his own arrangement of a waltz in A major by Johannes Brahms.

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