Gateways Music Festival Announces 2023-24 Season with Performances and Events in Rochester, New York City, Washington, DC and Chicago

(March 2023) — The 30-year-old Gateways Music Festival in association with Eastman School of Music, with a mission to connect and support professional classical musicians of African descent and enlighten and inspire audiences through the power of performance, announced today its 2023-24 performance schedule. This coming season, Gateways expands to a twice-yearly festival, with additional performances and programs taking place throughout the season. Engagements are planned for Rochester, NY, New York City, Washington, DC and Chicago. Highlights include performances of the music of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, the Chicago debut of the Gateways Festival Orchestra led by conductor Anthony Parnther, and the Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center debuts of the Gateways Chamber Players.

In the words of Lee Koonce, Gateways’ President & Artistic Director:

“The 2023-24 season is our most ambitious yet. Musician interest has soared since our successful Carnegie Hall debut in New York City in April 2022, and inquiries about Gateways’ availability to perform in other cities across the country have increased considerably. Two festivals each season, along with additional programming throughout the year, will allow us to respond to this increased demand by musicians and audiences alike.”

Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges

Gateways Music Festival’s fall 2023 lineup will showcase the works of composer Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, a Black artist who came to prominence in 18th-century France as a composer, conductor, violinist and fencer. Performances take place in both Rochester (Oct 18) and New York City (Oct 20), and preceding both concerts will be the Paul J. Burgett Community Lecture and Conversation Series with Julian Ledford, PhD, titled “Undoing Black Mozart: Towards a Truer Legacy of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-George.” Both concerts are also followed, the next day, by a screening of Chevalier, the soon-to-be released Searchlight Pictures film about Chevalier de Saint-George’s life, as well as a pre-film chat with the film’s composer, Kris Bowers, an Academy Award nominee who is also composer for the Netflix series Bridgerton.

Gateways Chamber Players and more

The Gateways Chamber Players is a new collective comprising some of the nation’s leading classical musicians, including bassoonist Monica Ellis of the Imani Winds, trombonist Weston Sprott and trumpeter Billy Hunter of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, percussionist Jauvon Gilliam of the National Symphony Orchestra, double bassist Patricia Weitzel of the Des Moines Symphony, clarinetist Alexander Laing of the Phoenix Symphony and conductor Damien Sneed. The collective makes its debut performances in the fall, first in Rochester at Eastman School of Music’s Kilbourn Hall (Oct 17) and then at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall (Oct 22), before performing in Gateways Music Festival’s Kennedy Center debut in the Terrace Theater in the spring (Feb 13). All three performances feature award-winning violinist Tai Murray – described by The Philadelphia Inquirer as a musician of “exceptional assurance and style” – in Igor Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale Suite and Wynton Marsalis’s A Fiddler’s Tale.

Other featured artists throughout the 2023-24 season include the Marian Anderson String Quartet, the Gateways Brass Collective and pianist Clayton Stephenson, a finalist in the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

Spring 2024 Chicago residency

The Gateways Music Festival will be in residence in Chicago from April 15–19, 2024. Hosted by Symphony Center Presents, the presenting arm of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the festival will make its Chicago debut at Orchestra Hall (home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra) on April 19. Chicago festival partners include Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music and Chicago’s WFMT classical music radio station.

Although Chicago program details are still under development, Anthony Parnther, who led the Gateways Festival Orchestra’s Carnegie Hall debut in 2022 and has conducted many major Hollywood film soundtracks, will once again lead the Gateways Festival Orchestra.

The week-long Festival in Chicago will include many of the programs for which Gateways is known, including chamber music, the Paul J. Burgett Community Lecture and Conversation, a film screening, panel discussions, Young Musicians Institute activities and more.

The complete fall 2023 season schedule appears below. Details about the 2024 festival will be available in late spring. To learn more about the 2023-24 season and to purchase tickets, visit gatewaysmusicfestival.org.

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 1997 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 paid staff position and broaden its impact in and beyond Rochester, NY.

In addition to the annual full-orchestra festival held each spring, other Gateways initiatives include a yearly chamber music festival each fall; the “Daily Showcase,” a social media campaign featuring a different Black classical composer each day on Facebook and Instagram; the Gateways Brass Collective, the only all-Black professional brass quintet in the country; the Gateways Residency, which presents renowned Gateways artists in recitals, masterclasses and community-based activities nationwide throughout the year; and, starting in January 2023, Gateways Radio, a one-hour syndicated radio program featuring Black classical artists on radio stations across the United States.

About the Eastman School of Music

The first professional school of the University of Rochester, the Eastman School of Music was founded in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman (1854-1932), founder of Eastman Kodak Company. George Eastman’s dream was that his school would provide a broad education in the liberal arts as well as superb musical training. Today, more than 900 students – approximately 500 undergraduates and 400 graduate students – are enrolled in the Collegiate Division of the Eastman School of Music. They come from almost every state, and approximately 23 percent are from other countries. All students are taught by a faculty comprising more than 130 highly regarded performers, composers, conductors, scholars and educators, who include 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

One of the nation’s leading private research universities, the University of Rochester is one of only 62 member-institutions in the Association of American Universities. Located in Rochester, NY, 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.

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Gateways Music Festival: 2023-24 Season

Oct 17 at 7:30pm
Rochester, NY
Hatch Recital Hall at Eastman School of Music
Concert: Gateways Brass Collective featuring Courtney Jones and Herbert Smith, trumpets; Larry Williams, horn; Isrea Butler, trombone; Jerome Stover, tuba

Oct 18 at 6:15
Rochester, NY
The Hochstein School
Paul J. Burgett Community Conversation: Undoing Black Mozart: Towards a Truer Legacy of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-George (Julian Ledford, PhD)

Oct 18 at 7:30pm
Rochester, NY
The Hochstein School
Concert: An Evening of the Music of Joseph Bologne, Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges featuring Brendon Elliott, violin; Angelica Hairston, harp; Terry Andrews, flute; Marian Anderson String Quartet; Gateways Chamber Orchestra

Oct 19 at 7pm
Rochester, NY
Hatch Recital Hall at Eastman School of Music
Pre-Film Talk / Interview: Kris Bowers, composer

Oct 19 at 7:30pm
Rochester, NY
Hatch Recital Hall at Eastman School of Music
Film Screening: Chevalier

Oct 19 at 7:30pm
New York, NY
Abyssinian Baptist Church (tentative)
Concert: Gateways Brass Collective featuring Courtney Jones and Herbert Smith, trumpets; Larry Williams, horn; Isrea Butler, trombone; Jerome Stover, tuba; Nathaniel Gumbs, organist and interim music director of Abyssinian Baptist Church

Oct 20 at 7:30pm
Rochester, NY
Kilbourn Hall at Eastman School of Music
Rochester Finale Concert: Gateways Chamber Players featuring Tai Murray, violin; Alexander Laing, clarinet; Monica Ellis, bassoon; Billy Hunter, trumpet; Weston Sprott, trombone; Patricia Weitzel, double bass; Jauvon Gilliam percussion; Damien Sneed, conductor

Oct 20 at 6:15pm
New York, NY
Location TBA
Paul J. Burgett Community Conversation: Undoing Black Mozart: Towards a Truer Legacy of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-George (Julian Ledford, PhD)

Oct 20 at 7:30pm
New York, NY
Location TBA
Concert: An Evening of the Music of Joseph Bologne, Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges featuring Brendon Elliott, violin; Angelica Hairston, harp; Terry Andrews, flute; Marian Anderson String Quartet; Gateways Chamber Orchestra

Oct 21 at 3pm
New York, NY
Location TBD
Pre-Film Talk / Interview: Kris Bowers, composer
Film Screening: Chevalier

Oct 21 at 7:30pm
New York, NY
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
Recital: Clayton Stephenson, piano

Oct 22 at 3pm
New York, NY
Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall
New York City Finale Concert: Gateways Chamber Players featuring Tai Murray, violin; Alexander Laing, clarinet; Monica Ellis, bassoon; Billy Hunter, trumpet; Weston Sprott, trombone; Patricia Weitzel, double bass; Jauvon Gilliam percussion; Damien Sneed, conductor

Feb 13 at 7:30pm
Washington, DC
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater
Concert: Gateways Chamber Players featuring Tai Murray, violin; Alexander Laing, clarinet; Monica Ellis, bassoon; Billy Hunter, trumpet; Weston Sprott, trombone; Patricia Weitzel, double bass; Jauvon Gilliam percussion; Damien Sneed, conductor

April 15–18
Chicago, IL
TBA

April 19 at 7:30
Chicago, IL
Orchestra Hall
Concert: Gateways Festival Orchestra
Anthony Parnther, conductor

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© 21C Media Group, March 2023