An Autumn Musicale at Chez Hosford

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Our dear friends Jacqueline and Christopher Hosford invited us to their home in Riverdale earlier this month for what they called “An Autumn Musicale.” Christopher is a true supporter/fan of mine, so I planned to offer a few selections. Jacqueline provided a fabulous spread of cheeses, nuts, fruit and veggies, and Swedish meatballs. Libations were poured by singer/musician/model Joel-Isaac Musoki.

Christopher Hosford
Christopher Hosford has a day job as editor for The Hosford Group LLC, and is the author of "Great Business Meetings, Greater Business Results." A talented pianist in his own right, he is the proud owner of a beautiful Chickering grand piano.

Carl Viggiani
The program opened with Carl Viggiani, who is a pianist and composer. He studied piano and composition at North Carolina School of the Arts, New England Conservatory, and the Manhattan School of Music, where he earned performance degrees in classical music and jazz.  He has performed regularly as a jazz pianist throughout the New York metropolitan area. In recent years, Carl has been concentrating his musical energies on composing, performing, and recording his original music. He presented an original composition titled “Call to Prayer,” which contained elements reminiscent of rabbinical cantor melodies, combined at times with a jazz/samba flavor.


Luis Santeiro
Then Luis Santeiro gave us a delightful rendition of the song “If the Moon was Cookie” as Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster, for which he wrote the lyrics. Christopher accompanied him on the piano. Luis is a television screenwriter and playwright who was born in Havana, Cuba. He first worked as a television writer for Carrascolendas, a bilingual children's television show that debuted in 1970 on the Austin, Texas, KLRN public television station. In 1976 he became head writer of the bilingual sitcom ¿Qué Pasa, USA? produced by Miami's public television station WPBT. Running for five years, the show received six regional Emmys and nine special awards from the Association of Critics and Commentators on the Arts for its producers, directors, writers, and cast. In 1979 he joined the writing team of the children's television program Sesame Street. Santeiro has been nominated for twenty Daytime Emmy Awards and has won fourteen, twelve of these during his twenty-nine-year career with Sesame Street. For his musical Barrio Babies, Santeiro received the Edward Kleban and Richard Rodgers Award, and in 1995 was honored with the National Hispanic Academy of Media Arts and Sciences Award for his play A Royal Affair. Santeiro has also received the Hispanic Achievement Award (1991) and the Hispanic Heritage Award (1993).


Jacqueline Hosford
Next, Jacqueline and Christopher treated us to a delightful rendering of "Why Can't You Behave?" from the musical Kiss Me Kate by Cole Porter. A regular at April and Nina's Salons, Jacqueline Hosford is a classically trained ballet dancer. Quoting her website: “For over a decade her firm (Jacqueline Hosford Interior Design LLC) has been working with clients throughout the greater New York region on residential and commercial projects ranging from simple design refreshes to architecturally driven construction and renovation. She is a past president of the New York Metro Chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), and an educator at the State University in Purchase, New York (SUNY).”

Nina Kennedy (photo credit: Alina Wilczynski)
After a short intermission, Jacqueline asked April Gibson to introduce me, and during her introduction she certainly acquired more viewers for The Noshing with Nina Show (which she produces). I presented two pieces - the first by Chopin (Nocturne in C minor, Opus 48), and the second by Rachmaninoff (Prelude in G-sharp minor, Op. 32 No. 12). Both were warmly received. Stay tuned for news regarding the Chopin Nocturne.

After a second intermission, Joel-Isaac Musoki came out from behind the bar to sit at the piano, and gave us a lovely rendition of “When You Wish Upon a Star” by Louis Armstrong, which was intended to be our Fare Well for the evening. The audience, however, had other ideas and demanded an encore. Carl Viggiani then returned to the keyboard while Joel retrieved his alto saxophone for a spontaneous improvised version of "Somewhere Beyond the Sea" by Bobby Darin, followed by “The Way You Look Tonight" by Dorothy Fields and Jerome Kern.
Joel-Isaac Musoki
Joel is pursuing a bachelor's degree at Columbia University, and is a Social Media and Marketing Coordinator there, and created and published promotional and informational audiovisual content for the New Student Orientation Program (Columbia Class of 2022). Born in The Democratic Republic of Congo and raised in London, Joel provided a delightful international flair for the evening as a most handsome bartender. He has a beautiful tenor voice. 

Much fun was had by all. We hope this is the first of many musical evenings at the Hosfords'.

Nina Kennedy is a concert pianist, orchestral conductor, and award-winning filmmaker. She holds a master’s degree from the Juilliard School. Her memoir, "Practicing for Love," is a 2021 Lambda Literary Award Finalist.

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