[1] 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.

[1] Around 1902, David Hochstein was playing his violin at the home of a friend, the future superintendent of New York State Police John Adams Warner, son of the architect J.

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.

[1] 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.

[citation needed] By the time World War I began, Jacob Hochstein had died, and David was the sole support for his mother.

[4] The last time Hochstein played the Stradivarius was March 8, 1918, at a recital attended by Margaret Woodrow Wilson, daughter of the President, at Camp Upton on Long Island.

[3] Reportedly, before leaving for war, Hochstein had expressed a desire to sponsor an effort to educate the underprivileged of Rochester in the musical arts, in such a way that cost to the students and their families would not be an obstacle.

[7] The school quickly joined the forefront of community music education in the United States, a burgeoning movement that took off in the postwar years.