What are the opening hours?

Monday 9am - 4:30pm Tuesday 9am - 4:30pm Wednesday 9am - 4:30pm Thursday 9am - 4:30pm Friday 9am - 4:30pm

Gateways Music Festival

Home
United States
Rochester, NY
Gateways Music Festival

Celebrating Black classical artistry! The Festival has been based in Rochester, New York since 1995 when Ms.

Gateways Music Festival's mission is to connect and support professional classical musicians of African descent and enlighten and inspire communities through the power of performance. The annual week-long Festival celebrates the participation and contributions of professional classical musicians of African descent through more than 50 solo, chamber and orchestra performances in concert halls and c

ommunity venues throughout the host city.

125 musicians from across the United States (and a few from Canada, Europe, South America and the Caribbean) participate in the Festival and perform for a large and diverse audience. Gateways Music Festival was founded in Winston-Salem, North Carolina by Juilliard-trained pianist Armenta (Hummings) Dumisani in 1993. Dumisani joined the faculty of the Eastman School of Music, from which she is now retired.

08/06/2026

💨 It’s not after the show, it’s the afterparty… It’s before the show, it’s rehearsal!!

Check out this BTS of our time International Black Theatre Festival, rehearsing Marsalis’s “A Fiddler’s Tale”. Tai Murray shreds in dialogue with imaniwinds’ Monica Ellis, conducted by Damien Sneed with the Gateways Chamber Players.

Feel free to watch this a few times…we keep doing the same thing. 🔥

08/02/2026

Triumph and joy. 🌟

Every Gateways performance celebrates the power of our artistry. But some performances rise even higher, reflecting the significance of that artistry to our culture and our time—and our appearance at the International Black Theatre Festival was one of those very special occasions.

To Queen M***a (!) Phylicia Rashad and the exquisite talents of Tai Murray, Shaquille Southwell, Monica Ellis, Herbert Smith, Kenneth Thompkins, Patricia Weitzel, Wesley Sumpter, and conductor Damien Sneed: we join the sold-out crowd at the International Black Theatre Festival in applauding the expertise, passion, and joy you brought to every note. 🙌🏾

And to our supporters and friends in Winston-Salem: thank you for the generous Southern hospitality and for welcoming Gateways home once again. 💜

📸 Larry Brown Photography

07/27/2026

The devil is BACK in the details. ❤️‍🔥🎻

This Wednesday, the Gateways Chamber Players return to Wynton Marsalis’s A Fiddler’s Tale—a contemporary reimagining of Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale, in which a young violinist trades her soul for fame and fortune, only to discover the true cost when the devil comes to collect.

We first performed this gripping, swinging work with living legend Phylicia Rashad and an all-star line up of Gateways friends during our 2023 Fall Festival at Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester. Now, we’re thrilled to reprise it before a sold-out audience at the International Black Theatre Festival—in Winston-Salem, the birthplace of Gateways Music Festival.

A special work. A full house. And a homecoming more than 30 years in the making.

See you Wednesday, Winston-Salem! 🌟

📸 Kurt Brownell

07/24/2026

We thought you could use a timeline cleanse. 😉

🖤 In October 2023, at our Fall Festival in Rochester, NY, Angelica Hairston took the stage for the world premiere of Maurice Draughn’s hauntingly lush “Harlem Wine.”

06/27/2026

It’s ! 📣 Join the celebration now at www.gatewaysmusicfestival.org/watch

06/26/2026

🖤 Black Music Month Artist Spotlight: Monica Ellis

Bassoonist Monica Ellis is a founding member of the Grammy-nominated Imani Winds and a force in chamber music whose work has expanded the possibilities of the wind quintet and opened new pathways for generations of classical wind players.

Here, Monica brings attitude, elegance, and bite to Mosaicos for Bassoon and Piano, a work written for her by celebrated composer Tania León.

In Monica’s hands, the bassoon speaks with wit, warmth, and unmistakable presence. See her full performance during our Gateways Giving Day celebration, streaming online this Saturday.

06/21/2026

LIFT EVERY VOICE AND SING 🖤💫

As our celebration of Juneteenth continues, we’re lifted by this powerful moment from the 2025 Gateways Spring Festival, when voices across Kodak Hall rose together in Rochester, NY, joyfully raising this anthem of freedom, hope, and legacy.

Juneteenth asks us to remember freedom not as a single day, but as a continuing call: to gather, to lift our voices, and to imagine a more just future together.

Let us march on — celebrating the power of music to connect us, and supporting the artists who carry the traditions of our artistry forward.

06/17/2026

🎻 Black Music Month Artist Spotlight: Kelly Hall-Tompkins

A longtime Gateways artist and former Gateways concertmaster, violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins reflects the brilliance, range, and global reach of Black artistry in classical music.

Here, she performs Wynton Marsalis’ Violin Concerto at the Lucerne Festival — bringing a major work by one of America’s most celebrated composers to one of the world’s great classical music stages.

A Naumburg International Violin Competition prize winner and Sphinx Medal of Excellence honoree, Kelly has appeared with leading orchestras across the country, performed on Broadway as the “Fiddler” violin soloist in Fiddler on the Roof, and championed new works on stages around the world.

Through her work as founder of Music Kitchen—Food for the Soul, she also expands where classical music can live, bringing world-class artists into spaces of care, dignity, and community.

This Black Music Month, we celebrate Kelly as part of the living legacy of Black classical artistry.

06/15/2026

📌 Save the date, friends!

On Saturday, June 27, we’re inviting the entire Gateways community to join us online for a special Gateways Giving Day celebration honoring founder Armenta Hummings Dumisani’s 90th birthday.

The broadcast will celebrate Armenta’s legacy and the artists carrying the work forward and exemplifying the future of Black artistry in classical music. 🎶

You’ll have two chances to join the celebration online: 11 AM ET and 4 PM ET.

RSVP and support Gateways today at the 🔗 in bio.

06/12/2026

This June, during , we’re launching something new. 🤩

Our inaugural campaign honors founder Armenta Hummings Dumisani, who turns 90 on June 27.

For more than 30 years, Miss Armenta’s vision has shaped Gateways into more than a festival: an artistic home, a gathering place, and a stage where Black classical musicians can create, perform, and thrive in community.

Now, through our 90 for 90 campaign, we’re inviting 90 donors to make a gift of any amount by June 27. When 90 donors give, a friend of Gateways has pledged an additional $5,000 gift.

90 donors.
90 years of legacy.
One powerful way to carry the work forward.

The campaign is live.

Support Gateways today → https://www.gatewaysmusicfestival.org/donate-now

Artwork: Portrait of Armenta Hummings Dumisani, 2026; Bobby K. Hill (b. 1973) Commissioned by Gateways Music Festival

Address

26 Gibbs Street, # 58
Rochester, NY
14604

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 4:30pm
Tuesday	9am - 4:30pm
Wednesday	9am - 4:30pm
Thursday	9am - 4:30pm
Friday	9am - 4:30pm

Telephone

+15852326106

Website

http://www.gatewaysmusicfestival.org/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Gateways Music Festival posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Want your organization to be the top-listed Non Profit Organization in Rochester?