While other students enjoyed spring break at home, Mr. Fabio Witkowski, head of the visual and performing arts department, Dr. Gisele Witkowski, instructor in piano, and Mr. Thomas Drake, director of the Center for Global Understanding and Independent Thinking, traveled to Asia to participate in concerts and receptions for prospective students and their families.
From March 8 to 20, the Witkowski Piano Duo performed a series of concerts in China and South Korea, including Hangzhou, Nanjing, Shenzhen, Seoul, and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The receptions also featured musical performances by current students living in the host cities, including Matthew Yao ’19, who performed in the Hong Kong reception.
March 13 was Yao’s last time playing the clarinet at the annual reception in Hong Kong as a student. Yao said, “[The concert] extends Hotchkiss’s influence and attracts students looking to pursue their interests, whether [they] be academic, artist[ic], or athletic. For current music students, it’s always a great pleasure and duty to meet new students in our home cities and inspire them through what we do best. In many ways we are ambassadors [of] Hotchkiss, and what better place to recruit than [in] our home cities?”
This was the fourth year of the music trip to Asia. Despite the distance, the trip will continue to introduce the School’s musical ambassadors to the other side of the globe.