Alexander Laing to Succeed Lee Koonce as President & Artistic Director of Gateways Music Festival in January 2024

Alexander Laing (photo: Jared Platt) & Lee Koonce (photo: Olubode Brown) Today, in association with Eastman School of Music, Gateways Music Festival – a national organization dedicated to connecting and supporting professional classical musicians of African descent – announced succession plans for its new leadership. The changes are set to begin in July 2023, when…

Read more

Summer@Eastman Spotlight: Summer Jazz Studies

Nearly half a century ago, Eastman pioneered a summer program for jazz musicians. Generations of students from around the nation spent their summers on Gibbs Street making music, making friends, and learning from each other and from Eastman’s faculty. In this blog, we hear from three leaders who significantly contributed to this thriving program and…

Read more
Rosemary Obi provides music therapy for the youngest hospital patients.

Music Therapy Finds its Rhythm at URMC

By Terri Medina Music heals. Music evokes memories and feelings. Music allows us to remember a specific moment in time. A beat, a note, a sound. Simply strummed or hummed, arranged and performed, music resounds deeply inside us and opens up our hearts and minds. URMC has been using music as a therapeutic tool since…

Read more