To underscore, “Evening at Eastman” transmitted not music performed live in the moment, but instead, the previously made recordings of live performances, drawn from the collection that today we call the Eastman Audio Archive.  As several writers have noted,^[2] there had been live radio broadcasts from the Eastman School in earlier decades, beginning in 1922 via the newly established station WHAM, the apparatus of which was situated in the Eastman Theater.  The first Eastman School event to be broadcast live was a Kilbourn Hall piano recital given by faculty member Raymond Wilson^[3] on July 11th, 1922.  In the following decade, beginning on January 7th, 1931, the Eastman School Symphony Orchestra under conductor Samuel Belov^[4] was heard in a series of half-hour concerts broadcast weekly by station WHAM and carried nationally on the NBC network, believed to be the first occasion when any student orchestra had presented a regular series of broadcasts over a national network.  In the spring of 1947, the NBC network resumed live broadcasts from the Eastman School with a series of fifteen programs of chamber music, featuring faculty members and students alike.  There were still other live radio broadcasts besides these, all confirming the Eastman School’s lively presence on the airwaves by means of the new medium of radio.

“Evening at Eastman” was on the air for at least four seasons, during which time a wide range of programming was presented, with students and faculty members receiving equal billing.  The program’s debut on air was in the same month that the Eastman Philharmonia made its debut concert appearance, and from the very start, Hanson ensured that the Philharmonia received exposure.  Among the other ensembles appearing on “Evening at Eastman” was Frederick Fennell’s Eastman Chamber Orchestra, a summertime ensemble comprised of faculty members and students performing together.^[5]  One sample program was the “Evening at Eastman” broadcast of March 24th, 1961, when the selections consisted of Pastorale by Tartini (performed by the ECO on July 17th, 1958, Sonata for flute, violin, and viola (performed on July 8th, 1958), and Concerto in B-flat major, K. 456 by Mozart (performed on July 24th, 1958), with soloist José Echániz.^[6]

In the 1960-61 season, Howard Hanson’s American music interests were promoted on “Evening at Eastman” with a series under the title “History of American Orchestral Music” that spanned twenty-one program installments.  The bulk of the content represented recordings by the Eastman-Rochester Symphony Orchestra, Hanson’s highly regarded recording ensemble that had been featured on recordings on the RCA Victor, Columbia, and Mercury Records labels.  As Hanson had done in the concert hall, so he did on “Evening at Eastman”—that is, he lovingly presented to the audience not only the well-known audience favorites, but also many works heard less frequently.  Thus, one program in that series featured works by Charles M. Loeffler and Charles Tomlinson Griffes, and another featured works by Herbert Elwell (these three not entirely household names in much of the nation). Still another program in Hanson’s “American Orchestral Music” series showcased pianist Eugene List^[7], who was heard in George Gershwin’s Concerto in F  and Rhapsody in Blue,  with the chamber work The Winter’s Past  by faculty member Wayne Barlow^[8] placed between them. Hanson’s “History of American Orchestral Music” series received national recognition when the National Association of Educational Broadcasters selected it to be aired over its radio network.

In addition, there was a periodic “Meet the Faculty” feature on “Evening at Eastman” with focus on one particular faculty artist at a time.  The broadcast of October 27th, 1961 profiled pianist Cecile Staub Genhart^[9], featuring three works that Mrs. Genhart had performed in a Kilbourn Hall recital earlier that year on February 3rd, 1961: the Bach-Busoni Chaconne in D minor, Scenes from Childhood by Robert Schumann, and the imposing Variations on a Theme by Handel  by Johannes Brahms.  (In her Kilbourn Hall recital she had also performed Ludwig van Beethoven’s Sonata in F-sharp major, opus 78, which was not included in the “Evening at Eastman” broadcast.)

The letters of appreciation that Dr. Hanson received from listeners in the local community bear witness to the Rochester community’s satisfaction and enjoyment.  Although “Evening at Eastman” did not remain on the air for an appreciably long length of time, it represented a first-of-its-kind broadcasting venture in Rochester, and one by which the Eastman School presented a diverse audio profile of itself to the outside community.  Other initiatives involving the Eastman School on the air will be featured in future “This Week at Eastman” entries.