Top, left to right: University Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity Vivian Lewis; Howard Potter, director of the Eastman Community Music School; President Joel Seligman; middle, l-r: Ruth Cahn, senior instructor of percussion; Diversity Award winner Jan Angus of Eastman Pathways; Anna Maimine of the Eastman School of Music; Diversity Award winner and organization development specialist Kristin Hocker; front: Carrol Frangipane, Eastman Pathways mentor and instructor of voice; and flutist Jahshanti Henry; at the Witmer House after the presentation of the Presidential Diversity Awards.
Part of the Eastman School of Music’s mission is a creation of a musical community that is rich with cultural, social, and intellectual diversity. No program embodies this essential value more than Eastman Pathways.
A partnership between the Eastman Community Music School and the Rochester City School District, Eastman Pathways provides music instruction to talented students. Launched in 1997, the program provides scholarship aid to between 60 and 70 outstanding 5th through 12th grade students for private lessons, classic in music theory and history, and participation in music ensembles. Underrepresented minority students account for more than half of the graduating classes in the past 15 years. In addition to the University of Rochester and the Eastman School of Music, Pathways graduates have been accepted to Harvard, MIT, Columbia, the University of Miami, SUNY Fredonia, the Manhattan School of Music, and Juilliard.
On January 23, Eastman Pathways received the University of Rochester’s Presidential Diversity Award at the annual Martin Luther King, Jr., address. “The Pathways program has a remarkable record of achievement in recognizing and nurturing talent in our community,” said Professor of Voice Katherine Ciesinski, who nominated Eastman Pathways for the award. “Music making provides a soundscape of beauty, intention, and organization that resonates deeply and orients each player to their own confidence and openness. Starting students on this ‘pathway’ gives them a sense of themselves as unique, worthy individuals with something to offer to the world.”
-Andrew Psarris ’15