Anniversary Celebrations
Jack and I began our commissioning hobby with the goal of celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary in 1981 in a novel, yet personal way: a private concert at the Minnesota Club in St. Paul featuring a commissioned work, followed by a tea dance (Jack and I had met at a tea dance in the Willard Hotel in Washington, DC in September 1962). The concert and dance were a success, and so started a Hoeschler tradition!
We knew local composer, Stephen Paulus, from my work as a music critic and Dayton Hudson Foundation arts grants coordinator; moreover, we had recently heard a lovely new Paulus work written for cellist Laura Sewell. With our overture, Stephen accepted our commission; thus began a series of meetings with him at our homes, a process that trained us, we believed, to be active, yet not controlling, commissioners. We jointly selected some medieval love poems which became the foundation of Courtship Songs for a Summer’s Eve: a marvelous 15-minute work (a minute for each year of marriage!) for the four instruments our two children played-- piano, flute, oboe and cello. Courtship Songs, which has now had scores of performances, was debuted by pianist Philip Brunelle (who also composed a splendid concert featuring tenor Vern Sutton), flutist Judy Ranheim (Kristen’s flute teacher), oboist Julie Madura (K’s teacher) and SPCO cellist Darryl Skoba. Emilie Buchwald wrote and recited a beautiful poem for the occasion. Butch Thompson and his trio played before the concert and afterwards for the dancing.
The 20th Anniversary concert piece (and our second commission), Partita, was written by Paulus for Violinist William Preucil (accompanied by Arthur Rowe on piano). It premiered in 1986 at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, followed by a dinner and dance. About 80 people traveled to join us for the weekend-long festivities. (Linda would joke that the marriage wasn’t good enough to celebrate each year with a party, but with a 5-year-goal for the next big celebration/commission we could keep it together!)
Our 25th wedding anniversary comprised a two-part celebration. The first event was an October 5, 1990 concert at the Corcoran Gallery, Washington DC, where our commission Quartessence for the Cleveland Quartet (where Bill Preucil was first chair), debuted, along with dinner and a dance. The second part, not of our doing, was a late-June 1991surprise Midsommer concert/dinner/dance at our cabin (!). Close friends had organized this complex party for a couple of hundred guests! Again, Emilie Buchwald wrote and recited a poem for the occasion.
Our 30th anniversary celebration in 1996 comprised a multi-day July-4th weekend celebration in Seattle, featuring the debut of Stephen Paulus’ Partita Appassionata for Bill Preucil and Art Rowe at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival (notice the pattern of artists!). Over 100 folks traveled to the West Coast for sightseeing, concert and the usual dinner-dance. Lots of work, lots of reward, and the last of our huge out of town anniversary extravaganzas.
(After our 20th anniversary we began to commission new works each year, then many a year, totaling almost 100 works. We celebrated others’ accomplishments with new music works, including our children’s marriages: Fritz to Julia Hoodless in October 1998 (works by Paulus and Siegel ) and Kristen to Terence O’Brien in November 2003 (works by Paulus, Schoenfield and Siegel).)
More simply, but still lovely, we marked our 35th anniversary with a dinner dance at our Gem Lake cabin in August 2001. (Steve Paulus was busy with other commissions and we felt less need for a special new work given our active commissioning schedule, and my work as ED of the American Composers Forum.)
Mid-January 2006, we marked our 40th anniversary a half-year early with the St Paul premiere of A Heartland Portrait by Stephen Paulus, a setting of poet laureate-Ted Kooser poems for baritone Thomas Hampson. This Hampson performance was part of the Library of Congress’ “Song of America” festival. We were on the Library’s Madison Council so initiated the commission, hosted a lovely dinner for over 100 at the Humanities Center (where Jack was on the board) and sponsored a residency with exhibits.
Our next out of town commission/celebration was an intimate 45th anniversary celebration in Cleveland in October 2012 (a year late, but great!). Again, our anniversary composer of choice, Stephen Paulus, wrote a splendid Violin Concerto #3 for Bill Preucil, concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra. A cluster of friends joined us in Cleveland to celebrate: David and Judy Ranheim, Leaetta Hough and Bob Muschewske, Charlie Boone and Carol Heen, Fred and Gloria Sewell.
Our planned 50th anniversary celebration was to be a in 2016 in Santa Fe at the Chamber Music Festival, with a Paulus work for Bill Preucil and pianist Arthur Rowe. We had decided this would be our last out of town anniversary celebration. Sadly, Stephen Paulus had a stroke in 2013 and died in October 2014. We talked to our children about finding another composer, but also suggested we could instead travel to Sweden and sail through the Archipelago off Stockholm for 10 days or so. The kids thought the sailing a grand (and better!) idea, so off we went in two boats with kids and grandsons, under the guidance of our sailor friend, Richard Gradin, a near-perfect trip for all.
Our 55th anniversary celebration was a quiet, elegant dinner with our family at our favorite St Paul restaurant, Luci Ancora. Jack’s health had begun to fail, and after a summer of several heart procedures, tests and medications to slow down his advanced prostate cancer, we were just grateful to be present to toast a beautiful rich life together. Jack died 10 months later, two months short of our 56th.
– L.L.H.