Gateways Music Festival
Gateways Music Festival Orchestra concertmaster and Eastman School of Music graduate Kelly Hall-Tompkins. (Photo: GREGORY ROUTT)
Rochester, New York
Gino Fanelli
August 6, 2017
Coming up this week is a Rochester
staple festival celebrating a community of people rich with culture and a
resounding artistic identity.
The
Gateways Music Festival, a celebration of peoples of African heritage in
classical music, will bring together 125 musicians from across the
country beginning Tuesday, Aug. 8, and running through Sunday, Aug. 13.
Juilliard-trained
pianist Armenta Adams (Hummings) Dumisani founded the biennial festival
in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in 1993. She said then that its
mission was to showcase classical musicians of African descent, inspire
musicians of African descent and provide powerful role models.
The festival moved to its current home in Rochester in 1995, following Dumisani's move to the Eastman School of Music.
Gateways,
which is holding its 24th celebration, has a new president and artistic
director — longtime board member Lee Koonce — and an official
partnership with the Eastman School of Music. This spells a bright
future for a festival that directors and musicians describe as a truly
communal experience.
“Our
musicians come from across the nation, and even abroad,” said festival
chairman Paul Burgett, the University of Rochester music department's
vice president. “Like the musicians say, it's more like a family
reunion.”
Noting a general under-representation of
people of African descent in classical music, Burgett said the festival
serves as a chance for young, aspiring musicians to find hope and
inspiration.
“Especially for our younger audiences
of African descent, it suggests that this is something that they can do
too,” Burgett said. “They can not only enjoy music at a very high level,
but for some of them, they can see themselves as participants of this
music.”
In particular at this year's event, Burgett
pointed to original compositions by Rochester native Adolphus
Hailstork, as well as piano performances by Toronto native Stewart
Goodyear.
Agreeing that the festival can serve as an inspiration
for people of color, Gateways Music Festival Orchestra concertmaster
Kelly Hall-Tompkins said the power of Gateways is its ability to bring
together musicians in the highest echelon of skill.
“In
this particular sense, as African-American artists we're represented in
such small numbers, it really is a reunion of sorts,” Hall-Tompkins, an
Eastman graduate, said.
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