Pictured are former students of Helga Hulse who will present the Helga Hulse Memorial Concert on Sunday, Nov. 12, at 4 p.m. at First Lutheran Church. Performers include Aaron and Boaz Mecham, Andy Schmidt and Lana Huston.

The First Lutheran Church Concert Series will present a Helga Hulse Memorial Concert on Sunday, Nov. 12, at 4 p.m. in the church nave.

Participants will include four former piano students including Aaron and Boaz Mecham, Lana Huston, and Andy Schmidt.

Aaron and Boaz Mecham were the last two piano students Helga had before she passed away at age 100. They are twin sons of Thomas and Ronit Mecham. Both young men are child prodigies and were home-schooled, having graduated from high school at the age of 14. The boys are now 17 years old in their Junior year at the State University at Fredonia, and they are double performance majors in piano and violin.

At SUNY Fredonia, Aaron and Boaz study piano with Father Sean Duggan and violin professor, Jessica Tong. They will perform on both instruments with each other accompanying the other for their violin solos.

Lana Huston began taking piano lessons with Helga Hulse when she was 3 years old. She continued taking lessons for 27 years until Hulse moved to South Carolina. During that time, Helga saw Huston graduate from Jamestown High School in 1999, from Saint Bonaventure University in 2001, summa cum laude, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Sciences, and from the State University at Buffalo Law School, where she earned her Juris Doctorate, cum laude. She was admitted to the New York State Bar in 2005. Huston is currently employed by the New York State Unified Court System as chief clerk of the Chautauqua County Surrogate’s Court.

Andy Schmidt began studying piano with Helga Hulse in January 1974 when he was nine years old. He continued his lessons with her until his graduation from Chautauqua High School in 1982. After his high school graduation, Schmidt continued his piano studies with Ozan Marsh at Chautauqua Institution, with Phyllis East at SUNY Fredonia, and with James Avery at the Eastman School of Music where he completed his Bachelors’ degree in Piano Performance in 1987. Following his graduation from Eastman, Schmidt established a thriving private piano studio in Jamestown which continues to this day. Andy Schmidt is also the organist for Christ First United Methodist Church in Jamestown.

An offering will go toward concert expenses and the Helga Hulse Mozart Club Music Scholarship Fund through the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation. A reception will follow the performance down in the church parlors. The public is welcome to attend.

Hulse passed away in 2022 shortly after turning 100 years old.

She spent more than 80 years of that time as a music teacher, teaching many students in the area. Hulse, born Sept. 21, 1921, in Honolulu, Hawaii, began taking piano lessons from her mother, Florence Booco Johnson, at the age of 3 and soon was filling in on radio recitals her mother’s students presented each week. She was playing full recitals at the age of 7 in Honolulu and Chicago, was a guest soloist with the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra when she was 11 and performed with the Women’s Symphony Orchestra of California when she was 17. A 1980 profile of Hulse by The Post-Journal’s Carol Cohan detailed Hulse’s extensive studies at the University of Southern California, where she received a masters degree in education; the Chicago Musical College, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, the McCune School of Music in Salt Lake City and the State University at Albany.

The 1990s saw the beginning of the Helga Hulse Mozart Club Scholarship through the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation. The scholarship helps students from Chautauqua County with the costs of music instruction. Applicants must show promise, as well as academic and vocational achievement. Students of any age are eligible for this scholarship

She also gave noteworthy performances that included a recital in celebration of her 80th birthday in 2001. The 90-minute performance was attended by her two sons and was preceded by former Mayor Sam Teresi proclaiming Sept. 8, 2001, as “Helga Hulse Day.” The event also featured a choral composition — at the time Hulse’s only composition — directed by Brian Bogey.

In 2008, Hulse, at the age of 86, directed the Harmony Heights Chorus, a group comprised of 12 female inmates at the Chautauqua County Jail. Hulse approached former Sheriff Joe Gerace with the idea of a women’s performance group. Once it was approved the group practiced every Monday for months before its debut performance. The group performed several times both inside and outside of the jail.

Prior to arriving in Jamestown in 1973, Hulse was interested in teaching music to blind students, writing a creative curriculum that she presented at the Lighthouse in New York City. After moving to Jamestown she established a private studio as well as serving as an adjunct faculty member at Jamestown Community College and teaching at Ss. Peter and Paul Parochial School. Among her students locally was Dennis Drew, who told The Post-Journal in 1996 he learned not only how to physically play but also mentally compose during his few months under Hulse’s tutelage.