Eastman School of Music Centennial Celebration Hosts Conferences, Festivals, and Artists-in-Residencies

The Eastman School of Music, of the University of Rochester, is proud to announce three major festivals, multiple national academic conferences, and several artists-in-residencies during its three-semester-long centennial celebration. Beginning in fall 2021 and continuing throughout 2022, Eastman will feature numerous performances by world-renowned artists—including composers, vocalists, instrumentalists, and quartets—both alongside student groups and as part of residencies, masterclasses, conferences, and festivals.

Residencies

• Composer Ben Moore Residency: September 24, 2021. Eastman’s Voice, Opera, and Vocal Coaching department continues Moore’s year-long residency, following several of Moore’s works included in Our Voices (December 2020). This fall, a full evening of Moore’s music will be semi-staged by Madeleine Snow, a master’s student in stage directing, and features 30 vocal majors. Selections include works like: Enemies, A Love Story (full-length opera), Henry and Company (musical), Odyssey and Robin Hood (two youth operas), and scenes from Gene and Tate (an operatic work-in-progress).
• Alarm Will Sound Residency: February 21-23, 2022. Members of Alarm Will Sound (including several alumni) will be hosted by Eastman’s Ossia ensemble, Conducting and Ensembles Department, and the Institute for Music Leadership. They will present several masterclasses, lectures, and a performance, all open to the public. More details to be posted soon.
• Cleveland Quartet Residency, April 1-3, 2022. This Grammy-winning ensemble, Eastman’s quartet-in-residence from 1976 to 1995, will be reunited as part of the annual James E. Clark Chamber Music Residency. Atar Arad, James Dunham, Martha Katz, Paul Katz, Peter Salaff, and Don Weilerstein, will present chamber music master classes as well as individual chamber music coaching. In addition, Robert Freeman, Eastman’s former Director who hired the Cleveland Quartet, will also be involved with the residency.

Festivals

• “Opening the Doors”, March 3-6, 2022. This four-day event will include performances in all of Eastman’s halls: “100 concerts in 100 days”; a “Performathon”; Eastman Community Music School Indoor Music Festival, open house and instrument petting zoo; Art of the Fugue event at Rochester Artisan Works; and a collaboration among Biodance, Cordancia & Eastman, including world-premieres of two works by faculty members, David Liptak ’75, ’76 (DMA) and Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon.
• Women in Music Festival, March 21-25, 2022. This week-long festival is a celebration of women involved in all aspects of music, including composition, performance, teaching, scholarship, and administration. Festival highlights include: a world premiere by composer Pam Marshall with Eastman’s Horn Choir; concert by the Lorelei Ensemble; saxophonist Alexa Tarantino ‘14; lunchtime concerts with music interspersed with poems by female poets; a composers’ forum featuring composer Gabriela Lena Frank; and a Florence B. Price Symposium and legacy concert, featuring James Greeson, from the University of Arkansas, presenting his documentary Caged Bird: The Life and Music of Florence B. Price.
• Gateways Music Festival, in association with Eastman School of Music, April 18-20, 2022. Gateways—an annual festival whose mission is to connect and support professional classical musicians of African descent—will host their 22^nd festival at Eastman and continue the exciting festival with a debut performance in New York City at Carnegie Hall on April 24, 2022. Gateways President & Artistic Director is Lee Koonce ’96 (MM).

Conferences

• College Music Society (CMS) October 5-10, 2021. CMS will be hosted at Eastman and nearby Rochester Riverside Convention Center, including workshops, a tour of Sibley Music Library, and a showcase of CMS performers and composers and more. Registration can be found on their website.
• New York State School Music Association (NYSSMA) December 4-5, 2021. Winter Conference will be held at Eastman.
• MTSNYS Conference / AMS Regional Chapter Conference, April 9-10, 2022. This will be a joint meeting of the Music Theory Society of New York State and the regional chapter of the American Musicological Society, celebrating the 50^thanniversary of MTSNYS along with Eastman’s Centennial.
• Diversity Conference, Fall 2022. Conference program. Speakers, and collaborators to be announced for Fall 2022.

Additional Highlighted Events

• In collaboration with Autism Up, Spectrum Creative Arts, and Eastman To Go, Eastman will host two Sensory-Friendly concerts, one designated for children and one for adults February 8, 2022 and April 12, 2022.
• Chamber Music Extravaganza, December 4-7, 2021. Chamber music performances will be performed across several days of performances, all in Eastman’s Hatch Recital Hall. Groups include duo piano groups, string quartets, brass chamber music, woodwind quintets and woodwind and piano trios. Music will be performed throughout several days, all in Eastman’s Hatch Recital Hall.
• Musicology Symposium Series: Celebrating Alumni. Hosted by Eastman’s Musicology department, this series will be held in NSL 404 (Sibley Music Library) at 4:30-6 p.m. and are open to the public:
  
  
  • October 14: Seth Brodsky (‘07E PhD), University of Chicago
  • March 24: Alexander Stefaniak (‘12E PhD), Washington University
  • April 14: Kira Thurman (’13 PhD, UR), University of Michigan
  • April 28: Tamara Levitz (’94E PhD), University of California, Los Angeles

In addition, the Eastman Centennial celebration will include acclaimed guest artists performing alongside Eastman’s ensembles; alumni events throughout the country; a documentary being produced in partnership with WXXI, and more. For up-to-date information on the Eastman Centennial Celebration, including feature stories, future events, videos, testimonials, ways to engage, and more, please visit our Centennial website.

About Eastman School of Music

The Eastman School of Music was founded in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman (1854-1932), founder of Eastman Kodak Company. It was the first professional school of the University of Rochester. Mr. Eastman’s dream was that his school would provide a broad education in the liberal arts as well as superb musical training.

More than 900 students are enrolled in the Collegiate Division of the Eastman School of Music—about 500 undergraduates and 400 graduate students. They come from almost every state, and approximately 23 percent are from other countries. They are taught by a faculty comprised of more than 130 highly regarded performers, composers, conductors, scholars, and educators. They are 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

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