Gateways Music Festival in association with Eastman School of Music, of the University of Rochester, launches its 2024-25 season — taking place locally and throughout the country — with an expansive lineup of performances by professional Black classical artists. Events in Rochester, NY are scheduled from October 14-18, 2024, and April 21-24, 2025. This season will also feature debut performances at Walt Disney World (Nov. 28) and the Cleveland Institute of Music (Feb. 3), as well as a return performance in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium (Apr. 27) by the all-Black Gateways Festival Orchestra, following its historic sold-out debut there in 2022.
Recently supported with a million-dollar grant from the Mellon Foundation, Gateways’ rich offerings are set to make a profound and lasting impact on the classical music landscape. By providing a supportive community and a joyful home for professional Black artists, whose performances bring together multiracial, multigenerational audiences, Gateways is playinga pivotal part in rewriting the classical music narrative.
Recognized with a Sphinx Medal of Excellence and named one of Musical America’s Professionals of the Year, Alexander Laing inaugurated his tenure as Gateways’ new President & Artistic Director at the start of the present year. He says:
“As I begin my first full season as President & Artistic Director of Gateways Music Festival, I am thrilled to continue celebrating the brilliance of Black classical musicians while expanding the festival’s reach through exciting new collaborations. From our work with the Tuskegee University William Levi Dawson Institute for Classical and Folk Music to our partnership with Eastman’s George Walker Center for Equity and Inclusion in Music, this season showcases the depth, diversity and richness of Black artistry in powerful and transformative ways. Our 2024-25 season is about celebrating the past, pushing boundaries in the present, and bringing people together through Gateways’ music. I couldn’t be more excited for what lies ahead.”
Visit the Gateways website for additional information about the season and to purchase tickets.
Schedule of Public Rochester Events
Free unless otherwise noted.
FALL 2024 | Oct 14-18, 2024
Monday, October 14
6:00 p.m. | Kilbourn Hall
Young Musicians Institute String Jam Performance
Tuesday, October 15
7:30 p.m. | Hatch Recital Hall at Eastman School of Music
In collaboration with Eastman’s George Walker Center Recital Series, Gateways presents pianist Joshua Mhoon performing a program of works by Rachmaninoff, Gershwin, Bonds, Kapustin, and Eric Nathaniel.
Wednesday, October 16
2:00 p.m. | Hatch Recital Hall
EarShot CoLABoratory Residency performance: Jordyn Davis
Gateways String Artists & Gateways Brass Collective, with the American Composers Orchestra
Wednesday, October 16
7:30 p.m. | Hatch Recital Hall
Gateways Showcase Concert: Josh Henderson and Friends
Gateways String Artists, featuring Josh Henderson, violin, viola, and electric bass
Thursday, October 17
7:30 p.m. | Hatch Recital Hall
Film screening: The Harlem Hellfighters
This evening will include a performance by the Gateways Brass Collective and a panel discussion with trombonist Isrea Butler ’04E, ’06E (MM), director of the School of Music at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Noble Sissle, Jr., the son of famous lyricist and jazz composer Noble Sissle, who performed with the Harlem Hellfighters regimental band while in the army during World War I.
Friday, October 18
7:30 p.m. | Kilbourn Hall
Eastman Presents: Gateways Brass Collective
Featuring Courtney Jones and Herbert Smith, trumpet; Larry Williams, horn; Isrea Butler, trombone; and Jerome Stover, tuba.
SPRING 2025 | April 21–24, 2025
Monday, April 21
7:00 p.m. | Hatch Recital Hall
Recital pianist TBA — presented in collaboration with Eastman’s George Walker Center for Equity and Inclusion.
Calendar Listing (details to come)
Tuesday, April 22
7:00 p.m. | Kilbourn Hall
Violinist, composer and four-time Grammy nominee Curtis Stewart ’08E, ’08 performs Seasons of Change—his re-composition of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons as an Afrofuturist meditation on climate change, class and the nature of digital memory.
Calendar Listing (details to come)
Thursday, April 24
7:30 p.m. | Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre
Anthony Parnther leads Gateways Festival Orchestra in a thoughtfully curated program of Antonín Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony, William Levi Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony, and selected songs and spirituals featuring Grammy-winning mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges.
Media only: Lauren Sageer, Assistant Director of Public Relations and Digital Content,
(585) 451-8492, lsageer@esm.rochester.edu
Featured Image: Anthony Parnther and Gateways Festival Orchestra at Carnegie Hall (2022) by J. Adam Fenster, University of Rochester
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About Gateways Music Festival:
The mission of Gateways Music Festival is to connect and support professional classical musicians of African descent and enlighten and inspire communities through the power of performance. Founded in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 1993 by noted concert pianist Armenta Hummings Dumisani, the festival was brought to Rochester, New York in 1995 when Hummings Dumisani joined the Eastman School of Music faculty. Approximately 125 musicians – comprising players in major symphony orchestras, faculty from renowned music schools and conservatories, and active freelance artists – participate in each festival. In 2016, while remaining an independent non-profit organization, Gateways formalized its longstanding relationship with Eastman and the University of Rochester. Among other mutual benefits, this deepened relationship provided much of the infrastructure and resources necessary for Gateways to increase its programming capacity, appoint its first professional staff position and broaden its impact in and beyond Rochester. In addition to the annual full-orchestra festival held each spring, other Gateways initiatives include a yearly chamber music festival each fall; Gateways Showcase, an initiative designed to shed light on the extraordinary stories, artistic achievements, and indelible impact of present and historic Black classical musicians; Gateways Brass Collective, the only all-Black professional brass quintet in the country; Gateways Residency, by which renowned Gateways artists are presented nationwide throughout the year in recitals, masterclasses and community-based activities; Gateways Chamber Players, an all-star touring ensemble featuring some of the nation’s most renowned classical musicians; and, since January 2023, Gateways Radio, a one-hour syndicated radio program featuring Black classical artists on radio stations across the United States.
To learn more, follow Gateways on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
For high-resolution photos, click here.
Mellon Foundation Grant:
To cap its banner anniversary season, earlier this summer Gateways was awarded the sum of one million dollars by the Mellon Foundation. This substantial grant was given to support President & Artistic Director Alex Laing’s vision for the next phase of Gateways Music Festival. The funding will serve to expand and strengthen Gateways’ artistic and educational work, enhancing the organization’s capacity and flexibility, and extending its reach through residencies, tours, partnerships, and major projects such as Gateways Radio. The new grant follows a previous Mellon Foundation award of $800,000 in 2021, which supported Gateways’ Carnegie Hall debut and assisted its ongoing growth and development.
About Eastman School of Music:
The Eastman School of Music was founded in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman (1854-1932), founder of Eastman Kodak Company. It was the first professional school of the University of Rochester. Mr. Eastman’s dream was that his school would provide a broad education in the liberal arts as well as superb musical training.
More than 900 students are enrolled in the Collegiate Division of the Eastman School of Music—about 500 undergraduates and 400 graduate students. They come from almost every state, and approximately 23 percent are from other countries. They are taught by a faculty comprised of more than 130 highly regarded performers, composers, conductors, scholars, and educators. They are Pulitzer Prize winners, Grammy winners, Emmy winners, Guggenheim fellows, ASCAP Award recipients, published authors, recording artists, and acclaimed musicians who have performed in the world’s greatest concert halls. Each year, Eastman’s students, faculty members, and guest artists present more than 900 concerts to the Rochester community. Additionally, more than 1,700 members of the Rochester community, from young children through senior citizens, are enrolled in the Eastman Community Music School.
About the University of Rochester:
The University of Rochester is one of the nation’s leading private research universities, one of only 62-member institutions in the Association of American Universities. Located in Rochester, N.Y., the University gives undergraduates exceptional opportunities for interdisciplinary study and close collaboration with faculty through its unique cluster-based curriculum. Its College, School of Arts and Sciences, and Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences are complemented by the Eastman School of Music, Simon School of Business, Warner School of Education, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, School of Medicine and Dentistry, School of Nursing, Eastman Institute for Oral Health, and the Memorial Art Gallery.