The Kupchynsky family (left to right Mr. K, Stephanie, Melanie, and Jean) in 1976.…

… And the Lipman family the same year.
Left to right: Michele, Ronni, Burton, Diane, and Joanne (with Skippy).

Can you say “awkward stage”? Joanne at age fourteen in her purple dress, after Mr. K featured her in a confidence-boosting solo performance.

Joanne at her first lesson with renowned violist Paul Doktor. Mr. K sent his best students to study with more advanced teachers.

Mr. K was tough on the podium, but always appreciative when he sat in the audience. Here, applauding for his students in the mid-1970s.

Melanie with her high school boyfriend and fellow violinist, Michael. Mr. K allowed her to date only reluctantly. When Michael got his driver’s license, Mr. K wouldn’t let his daughter into the car until Michael took him on a test drive.

Joanne, age sixteen, at a rehearsal for the New Jersey Senior Regional Orchestra.

Mr. K, conducting the New Jersey Senior Regional Orchestra, poses with the principal players from each section. He has one arm around Melanie and the other around Joanne; Miriam Simon stands next to Joanne.

Joanne and Tom married at the National Arts Club in New York City on June 13, 1987. Tom’s brother, pianist and composer Jed Distler, perfomed at the reception as his gift.

Stephanie gets a kiss from her father at Melanie’s wedding, September 5, 1987. Stephanie serenaded the newlyweds on her violin at the ceremony as her gift.

The front page of The Wall Street Journal, October 7, 1983. To report her article about street musicians, Joanne played her viola in Times Square, in front of the New York Stock Exchange, and in the concourse of the World Trade Center, among other locations.

Members of the Chicago Symphony pose in front of St. Basil’s cathedral in Moscow during the orchestra’s historic 1990 tour. This was Mr. K’s first trip back to Eastern Europe since he fled in 1946. He and Melanie stand in the first row, far right.

The Kupchynsky family on Christmas Day, 1990.
From left to right: Jean, Stephanie, Ed, Jerry, and Melanie with Allegro the cockatiel.

The poster that volunteers distributed throughout upstate New York immediately after Stephanie’s disappearance, August 1991.

Mr. K’s influence, the next generation: Joanne’s son, Andrew, plays the French horn.…

… while her daughter, Rebecca, dances classical ballet.…

… and all three of Melanie’s children play the violin. Here, a gift of music for Baba’s one hundredth birthday celebration, November 2004. Left to right: Laura, Melanie, Greg, and Nick.

Joanne performs for the first time in years, at Mr. K’s memorial concert, Hammarskjold Middle School, East Brunswick, New Jersey, February 14, 2010.

Melanie leads the orchestra at Mr. K’s memorial concert. Her son Nick sits directly behind her. Michael Grossman sits behind Nick.

And the orchestra played on.… The podium may be empty, but Mr. K was very much with us all that day. With Dr. Sandra Dackow, conductor.