Carnegie Hall

Groundbreaking from its inception, Gateways Music Festival has highlighted professional classical musicians of African descent since 1993. Featuring orchestral, chamber, and solo performances—among other arts programming—the festival has grown considerably from its start as a grassroots organization in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Now based in Rochester and in association with the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music, the independent Gateways Music Festival is a renowned artistic community for Black classical musicians and is establishing itself as one of the nation’s premier touring festival orchestras.

A Visionary Founder

Before Armenta Adams (Hummings) Dumisani founded Gateways, she led her own distinguished career as a pianist. The daughter of two amateur church musicians, Miss Armenta received a full scholarship to The Juilliard School, where she won the school’s Piano Concerto Competition, and received bachelor’s and master’s degrees. She was also winner of the John Hay Whitney Competition, the New York Musicians Club Piano Competition, the Musical America Musician of the Year Award, the National Association of Negro Musicians Competition, and the first Leeds International Competition Special Prize. Throughout the 1960s, Miss Armenta performed in New York City’s finest venues—including a 1964 Carnegie Hall concert on a program that included Duke Ellington—and across 27 countries and five continents.

After founding Gateways Music Festival in 1993, Miss Armenta joined the faculty of the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester in 1994, where she forged a longtime partnership with the Rochester community and created a new home for Gateways. Known for her tireless devotion, Miss Armenta could be seen traveling between her teaching sites with her cello strapped to her back, pushing a shopping cart with her supplies.

An All-Star Ensemble

Attracting the finest musicians of African descent from across the United States and around the world, the Gateways Festival Orchestra features musicians from top symphony orchestras, faculty from elite music schools, and in-demand freelance artists.

Each iteration of the Gateways Festival Orchestra is unique, shaped by the particular mix of artists who come together. Their energy—and the sense of occasion created by the Festival itself—infuses every performance.

The ensemble regularly includes members of the New York Philharmonic, the orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera, and Los Angeles Philharmonic, and has featured soloists like clarinetist Anthony McGill, pianist Stewart Goodyear, violinists Kelly Hall-Tompkins and Tai Murray, and mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves.

More Than an Orchestra

Just as the Gateways Festival Orchestra has increased in size and ambition over time, so too has the festival. Beyond Rochester, Gateways Music Festival has had residencies in New York City and Chicago, and has hosted workshops, presentations, and recitals online for those who can’t attend in-person sessions.

Besides a 120-member orchestra, the nonprofit presents the touring Gateways Brass Collective—the only all-Black professional brass quintet in the country—and Gateways Chamber Players, an all-star ensemble with flexible lineups. During every festival, Gateways offers free workshops and master classes for young musicians, symposia, and recitals.

Highlighting Black History

Throughout its programming, Gateways Music Festival has highlighted the unique contributions of Black and African composers, arrangers, historians, organizations, and leaders who are often overlooked in musical history. Through the organization’s Paul J. Burgett Lecture and Community Conversation series—named for the esteemed Black music academic—the organization brings together scholars to discuss and contextualize the work of composers like Florence Price, George Walker, and William Levi Dawson, and to trace how Black musicians and leaders have shaped classical music.

Gateways has become a gathering place for scholars of Black music, with guests like esteemed Miami University musicologist Dr. Tammy L. Kernodle and National Museum of African American History and Culture curator Dr. Dwandalyn R. Reece delivering free lectures to the public.

A Growing New York City Presence

Decades after its founder’s debut in Carnegie Hall, Gateways Music Festival made its first appearance on Stern Auditorium’s Perelman Stage in 2022. Conducted by Anthony Parnther, the performance featured the world premiere of award-winning bandleader, composer, and pianist Jon Batiste’s I Can, for which Batiste also played solo piano.

Reflecting the group’s commitment to work by Black composers, the ensemble performed George Walker’s Sinfonia No. 3, Florence Price’s Symphony No. 3, and James V. Cockerham’s Fantasia on “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” The sold-out concert was a sign of the group’s far-reaching support and a harbinger of Carnegie Hall collaborations to come.

Photography: Gateways Festival Orchestra by Chris Lee, Adams by Carl Van Vechten, Gateways Festival Orchestra Master Classes by Fadi Kheir.