Prominent business entrepreneur and community leader, and former long-time resident of Rochester NY, Mr. Chi Yuan Ho, age 94, passed away peacefully on Sunday, February 15, 2004 in Lexington, Massachusetts. Mr. Chi Yuan Ho was born October 4, 1909 in the village of Daxindian, Penglai in China. In 1926, he traveled to Korea to pursue international business interests. Chi Yuan Ho resided over a thirty-year span predominantly in South Korea, however several excursions were undertaken to venues including Shanghai, Japan and Hong Kong. He was a prominent businessman, multilingual in Chinese, Korean, Japanese and English. Mr. C.Y. Ho held one of the leading international trading companies in Korea at that time, the Chunbo Trading Company, LTD., establishing global businesses within a  multitude of U.S., European, South American and Asian countries. In the late 1950's, he and his family immigrated to the U.S. and resided in Rochester, New York. During his residence in Rochester, he was an active member and founder of the Rochester Chinese Christian Church and led a regional Christian bible study group. During his retirement in 1989, Mr. Ho returned to his hometown in China and founded and built the Daxindian Penglai Christian Church. Penglai borders on the Bohai and Yellow Sea on the northern coast of Shandong Peninsula. Shandong is the birthplace of Confucius. The Shandong Peninsula faces Korea and Japan to the east. Penglai is historically renowned for their beautiful mountain and seacoast landscapes, and antiquities.

Mr. Chi Yuan Ho is survived by his brother He Xiang Qin in China, by his son William Ho, by his daughter Mary Ho, and nine grandchildren. Mr. Ho was preceded in death by his wife, siblings, mother, father and paternal and maternal grandparents. A private ceremony was held at Mt. Auburn Ceremony in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Cremains will be buried during the summer 2004 in Daxindian, Penglai, China.

Memorial services will be held Sunday, February 28, 2004, 2:00PM at The Rochester Chinese Christian Church, 1524 Jackson Rd, Penfield NY 14524, Tel: 585-872-6708 and on Saturday, March 7, 2004, 5:00PM at The Bahá'í Center of Greater Rochester, 693 East Avenue, Rochester NY 14607, Tel 585-244-2220. Please contact for further information china@frontiernet.net Tel:585-256-0166.

Spencer Wells was formerly head of the Genetics Population Research group at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at Oxford University and is currently a consultant to biotechnology firms. Spencer Wells will present a lecture and reception to follow will be held at RIT, sponsored by PBS-WXXI on April 28, 2004, TBD. Advance registration required. 

ALAN SINGER, A SLICE OF LIFE, RETROSPECTIVE LOOK AT THE ARTS IN PAINTINGS, PRINTS AND DRAWINGS, 1993-2003

Singer has lately been working in a totally abstract language, but he has passed through several phases in his career, including that of a realist. he collaborated with his father, Arthur Singer, on book projects and postage stamps with bird and botanical themes...

Nature still imbues Singer's paintings. What characterizes his recent work is a sense of activity, movement and flow. His art has the refreshing jauntiness found in the pioneering American abstractionists, who were smitten by the heady possibilities afforded by the new mode of art making. Each of his paintings is a fresh rethinking of the elemental artistic resources that became at his disposal when Singer decided to paint in a way that harkens back to abstraction's roots. The early abstractionists put their entire personalities into their compositions, something that was lacking when abstraction became inducted into critical theory ... Alan Singer is bringing back vitality ", William Zimmer, contributing art critic for the New York Times.

A Retrospective Look at the Art of Alan Singer, In Paintings, Prints and Drawings, 1993-2003, SLICE OF LIFE exhibition will open in the evening of Thursday, March 11, 2004 from 6:30-9:30PM at The Joseph F. & Helen C. Dyer Arts Center, the National Institute for the Deaf, Rochester Institute of Technology and will run from March 11 to April 9, 2004. Opening night, Thursday, March 11at 7:00PM there will be a special performance of the  RIT World Music Ensemble under the direction of Carl Atkins, RIT Professor of Music. Gallery hours: Monday through Friday, 9:00AM to 4:30PM and Friday, 9:00AM to 7:00PM. Please call 585-475-6855 for more info.

YING QUARTET, RANLET SERIES, KILBOURN HALL,  EASTMAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC

Now in its second decade, the Ying Quartet continues to develop ways of making artistic and creative expression an essential part of everyday life. Their current projects in this direction include: an innovative visiting residency at Symphony Space in New York City, linking music with poetry; a project with Da Camera of Houston to bring chamber music into the lives of Houston working people; and an exploration, on tour, with the Turtle Island String Quartet of jazz, improvisation, and the classical string quartet tradition.

As Quartet in Residence at Eastman, the Ying Quartet plans and directs a rigorous, sequential chamber music curriculum that integrates intensive musical instruction with training in creative presentation and communication skills and includes practical performance opportunities throughout the greater Rochester community. The Ying Quartet has also taught at Northwestern University and at the Interlochen and Brevard Music Festivals, and since 2001, it has been the Blodgett Quartet in Residence at Harvard University.