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

Details

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.

Details

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

Details

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

Details

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.

Details

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.

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SPRING 2025 | April 21–24, 2025

Monday, April 21

7:00 p.m. | Hatch Recital Hall

Recital pianist - 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 Dvo?ák’s Eighth Symphony, William Levi Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony, and selected songs and spirituals featuring Grammy-winning mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges.

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Media only: Lauren Sageer, Assistant Director of Public Relations and Digital Content, (585) 451-8492, [email protected]

Featured Image: Anthony Parnther and Gateways Festival Orchestra at Carnegie Hall (2022) by J. Adam Fenster, University of Rochester