Rochester’s own Gateways Music Festival, running from Nov. 9 through 13, is not merely a celebration of Black classical musicians.
Gateways Music Festival
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Calendar preview: Keep calm and…
While there’s a lot of national anxiety right now, there are plenty of fresh air, music, and art events to help keep calm here in Rochester.
Posted inMusic
Gateways brings black classical musicians together
Attend virtually any orchestral concert in the country, and you’re likely to see a similar picture onstage: a sea of white performers, with very little racial diversity. The perception that classical music is predominantly a Caucasian pursuit has endured for several centuries, but that idea doesn’t reflect the current reality, as demonstrated by the Gateways Music Festival.
Posted inMusic
Gateways celebrates and promotes classical musicians of African descent
Only 1.8 percent of American symphony orchestra members are African-American or of African descent, according to the League of American Orchestras. And that number doesn’t seem to be increasing significantly anytime soon. The prospect of young students of African descent not only getting into the field of classical music but succeeding in it, says Paul […]
Posted inMusic
Opening the gates
Classical music boasts some stellar African-American names: composers Scott Joplin, William Grant Still, and George Walker; singers Leontyne Price, Shirley Verrett, and William Warfield; and pianist André Watts, not to mention the many black musicians in our symphony orchestras. For 22 years, Gateways Music Festival’s aim has always been the same: to “increase the visibility […]
