OUR STORY
Gateways Music Festival connects and supports professional classical musicians of African descent and enlightens and inspires communities through the power of performance.
Gateways musicians are multi-cultural, multi-lingual and multi-national people of the African diaspora who are challenging the status quo and preconceptions about classical music at the highest levels. Besides our love for classical music, we share in common the dismissal of narrow definitions of our identities and preconceived notions of our abilities. We celebrate the heritage of a people distinguished for their creativity, perseverance and unwavering desire for self-determination. We honor the contributions of those who have preceded and paved the way for us.
In performance, the image of the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra offers a counter narrative to stereotypical images of classical musicians and, we hope, will inspire the field to redouble its important work towards greater cultural diversity and inclusion. However, Gateways’ main goal is not to provide a solution to a problem not of its making. Instead, it was created to serve as an antidote to the isolation and under-estimation experienced by many classical musicians of African descent and to provide a vibrant and supportive community where they could find affirmation and an artistic home.
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, NY in 1997 when Hummings Dumisani joined the Eastman School of Music faculty. Approximately 125 musicians–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 long-time relationship with Eastman and the University of Rochester. Among other mutual benefits, this deepened relationship provided many of the resources and infrastructure necessary for Gateways to increase its programming capacity, appoint its first paid staff position and broaden the impact that the organization has made in and beyond Rochester, New York.
Drawing on the foundation laid in its humble beginnings as a grassroots organization supported primarily by the tireless efforts of volunteers, Gateways has flourished under conditions many would have thought insurmountable.
In addition to inspiring musicians and audiences, Gateways affirms the important role people of African descent have played in classical music for centuries. Performers, composers, arrangers, historians and organizations - like the National Association of Negro Musicians founded 100 years ago in response to their exclusion from most concert stages ‒ are featured in Gateways performances and events to create a more complete and accurate picture of classical music in and beyond the United States. In this way we are able to change the perceptions of audience members, especially those who believe that a lack of racial diversity is evidence of an absence of talent, interest or inclination, and those who, for the first time, can imagine themselves occupying a music-making space once thought to be restricted, exclusive or out of reach.
In a society still clinging to ideas and practices that disadvantage the many and privilege the few, Gateways is proud to be the only organization in the United States devoted primarily to strengthening the community of professional classical musicians of African descent. Over the next 26 years, we will continue to provide nurturing and artistically invigorating spaces for this community and musical performances and events that educate, delight and inspire our audiences.
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