The Jewish Encyclopedia
of Western Pennsylvania
A project of the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center
Sara Mildred Wolk Hoechstetter (1896-1974) was born in Pittsburgh, part of one of the oldest Jewish families in Western Pennsylvania. Among her siblings were many gifted musicians, and Wolk Hoechstetter gained notice as a singer and composer in the early 1930s, performing with her sister Bessie Wolk as the duo “The Syncopating Sisters.”
Aside from a high school drawing class, Wolk Hoechstetter had no formal artistic training. She was inspired to pursued painting after attending a lecture series at the YM&WHA sponsored by the National Council of Jewish Women-Pittsburgh Section. Her first painting, depicting the Pennsylvania Station in a snowstorm, was displayed at an outdoor exhibit of local painters on the lawn of the Schenley Hotel in 1933. It received a warm response from local critics, leading her to join the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh.