2007
Community Award
Stasia B. Hovenesian
Diane Hovenesian ’75, Stasia Hovenesian, our community Award recipient, Sr. Ann Morrison, Principal and Patrice Hovenesian-Sivco ’78
For the past thirty-five years, Stasia has been the guiding force behind Music Worcester, the premiere presenter of classical music in Central Massachusetts. Under her guidance, Music Worcester has sustained and nourished the Worcester Music Festival, and the International Artist series featuring symphony and chamber orchestras from around the world, the Worcester Chorus, the Mass Jazz Festival, and various international dance companies.
After graduating from Boston University, Stasia used her organizational skills as president and coordinator of the University’s local alumni association. Before joining Music Worcester in 1973, she lent her fund-raising skills to the Friends of the Retarded. Since her appointment as the first woman executive director of Music Worcester in 1973, Stasia has transformed the Worcester Music Festival from what once was a one-week event featuring one orchestra and a series of soloists, to an eclectic series of music and dance, both classical and contemporary, which, this season, will boast 19 performances. Her decision to add contemporary music and dance to the classical mix has drawn more young people to the performances.
Stasia is on the Board of Directors of the Worcester Center for Performing Arts and a member of the Worcester Cultural Commission. She has also served on the boards of the Worcester Chamber of Commerce and the Worcester Cultural Coalition. In 2001, she co-chaired the Arts and Culture Committee of the Center City Development Council. The National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities have both benefited from her expertise when she served on their music advisory panels.
Notre Dame Academy joins a distinguished list of organizations that have honored Stasia. She received the Distinguished Woman of the Year Award from the Worcester Area Association for Retarded Children in 1971, the First Ladies of Worcester Award from the YWCA in 1975, the Achievement Award from the National Council of Christian and Jews in 1989, and the Visions 2000 Cultural Enrichment Award sponsored by the Telegram and Gazette. This May, Stasia was honored by Worcester State College at their Scholarship Tea.
Stasia and her husband, the late Aaron Hovenesian, are the parents of son Jay and daughters Diane Hovenesian, NDA Class of 1975, and Patrice Hovenesian-Sivco, NDA Class of 1978.
Notre Dame Academy
425 Salisbury Street, Worcester MA 01609
Phone: 508-757-6200/ FAX: 508-757-1888