Fifty seven years ago this week, five days in March, 1966 were officially known as “Stravinsky Week” at the Eastman School of Music, when composer Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) was in residence by invitation of Director Walter Hendl, who had known the composer personally for numerous years.^[1]  Mr. Hendl later described having conceived the Stravinsky residency “with a view toward bringing Eastman students into direct contact with the outstanding factors in today’s musical world” and he continued, “I have always felt there is real value in any encounter with a creative force.  The phenomenon that is Stravinsky, of course, is entirely unique, and this was quite an encounter.”^[2]   To that end, the week’s events were designed to enable quality interaction between composer and Eastman School community in meaningful ways.  Professor Donald Hunsberger, then-chairman of the Eastman School Ensembles department, was chairman of the special Stravinsky Week Committee, the other members of which were Professors Charles Warren Fox, George Corwin, and Robert Gauldin.  The week would conclude with a gala concert at which the University would confer an honorary doctorate on the composer.

It has frequently been said around the Eastman School that the Stravinsky residency represented another step in the Hendl Administration’s embrace of the musical world beyond American music. Throughout Howard Hanson’s long tenure, the Eastman School of Music had correctly been perceived as an institution where American music and the American composer were ardently championed.  The many American Composers’ Concerts, and the annual Festivals of American Music (1931-1971) bore testimony to this.  I myself have quipped more than once that during the Hanson years, one might appropriately have draped a banner reading “American music played here” on the Eastman School’s exterior.  The cause of American music was a valid and worthy mission, and its advocacy at the Eastman School did not end with Hanson’s retirement.  For one thing, the Festivals of American Music continued through 1971 with Hanson’s continuing administrative participation, and still today, the Howard Hanson Institute for American Music is instrumental in the commissioning of new works.  The difference between the Hanson era and later is one of priority, or of balance; in the post-Hanson Eastman School, American music has taken its place as one creative entity within a broader vision of music.  Under Director Hendl’s leadership there came a succession of high-profile events which brought the students and faculty of the Eastman School into direct contact with noteworthy international figures.  The first had been in December, 1965 when Mr. Hendl had conducted the Western Hemisphere premiere of Dmitri Kabalevsky’s Requiem, opus 27 in a performance featuring a children’s chorus drawn from the Rochester City School District. (That same chorus would be re-branded the following year as the Eastman Children’s Chorus, and would remain active through the 1970s.)  Roll forward to March, 1966, when a major composer would be in residency.

Composer Stravinsky and his wife arrived in Rochester on Sunday evening, March 6th, having flown from Los Angeles via Chicago; their appointed accommodations were the downtown Sheraton Hotel (today the apartment building at 111 East Avenue).  The following morning, Monday, March 7th, the composer met with media representatives in an all-media press conference at Hutchison House, 930 East Avenue, which at that time was the official residence of the Eastman School Director.  The composer fielded questions from media representatives while seated before a microphone and flanked by his hosts Mr. and Mrs. Walter Hendl. One local newspaperman’s summary of the media conference described the composer as “simple, informal, friendly, slight of stature” and “with a face wreathed in smiles and eyes twinkling behind heavy glasses.”^[3]  Another press account noted that Stravinsky had refused to comment on the work of other contemporary composers, and had similarly declined to share or venture any thoughts as to the direction that music would take in the remaining years of the 20th century.^[4]  Still another press writer reported that when asked about the place of women in conducting and composing, the composer had answered, “That is not a woman’s profession.”^[5]  (!!!)  Later that day, the composer’s wife Vera was the guest of honor when Mrs. Edith Hendl hosted a tea at Hutchison House. Madame Stravinsky (1889-1982), like her husband a Russian-born expatriate, was a former dancer who had long been active in the art world.  In the company of Mrs. Hendl and other guests, she graciously answered questions from the press and spoke in particular of her love of books.^[6]

On Mond­­ay evening, March 7th, Stravinsky was officially welcomed to the Eastman School with a Collegium Musicum concert in Kilbourn Hall featuring several of his chamber and vocal works.  The following afternoon, on Tuesday, March 8th, there was a student-faculty convocation, essentially a visitation, in Kilbourn Hall during which the composer took questions from the audience.  He was joined on the stage by Mr. Hendl and by his wife.

On the afternoon of Wednesday, March 9th, students from outside the Eastman School were welcomed to attend what had been promoted as a College and Secondary School Visitation in the Eastman Theater.  At this event, the Eastman Wind Ensemble performed the Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1947 revision) under Dr. Hunsberger’s direction; the Eastman School Symphony Orchestra performed the Suite No. 2 for Small Orchestra (1921) and two excerpts from the ballet Petrushka (1947 revision), conducted by Mr. Hendl; and then followed an open rehearsal of sections from the musical play The Flood (1962) in which the Eastman Philharmonia was conducted by Stravinsky’s assistant, composer Robert Craft (1923-2015). Throughout the rehearsal Mr. Stravinsky was seated on the stage as an active participant, following his score and offering critical commentary.

On the afternoon of Thursday, March 10th, Kilbourn Hall was the venue for a seminar billed as “The Performers and Contemporary Compositional Techniques” which took the form of a panel discussion moderated by Mr. Stravinsky’s assistant, Mr. Craft.  The panelists were Mr. Hendl, composer Stravinsky, Professor Bernard Rogers, and Professor John Celentano.  The panel discussion was followed by a performance of Stravinsky’s Septet, performed by six Eastman School students who had been prepared by Professor Robert Gauldin.