Along with the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music, Gateways Music Festival ignites the season with its 2025 Fall Festival. It crowns its 2025–2026 programming with a momentous return to its birthplace in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
The Festival, celebrated for its mission to connect and support professional classical musicians of African descent, said it will present “an inspiring lineup of concerts, community events and educational programs that highlight artistry, cultural heritage and collaboration around the country.”
The Gateways Fall Festival, which will take place Oct. 13–16 in Rochester, celebrates “tradition and transformation through classical performance, cultural exchange, and collective celebration.”
At the heart of the Festival, seven-time GRAMMY Award-winner Terence Blanchard and his electrifying band, The E-Collective, join the Gateways Festival Orchestra, led by conductor Damon Gupton, for Film Scores Live! — a performance of Blanchard’s iconic film scores — including Malcolm X, BlacKkKlansman, and Inside Man.
Presented in collaboration with the inaugural Soundtrax Film Festival, the concert underscores Gateways’ mission to spotlight the cultural contributions of Black composers.
The Festival said it also features a solo recital by acclaimed pianist David Berry and a concert including Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Nonet in F Minor performed by the Gateways Chamber Players — an all-star ensemble of Black classical musicians featuring bassoonist Monica Ellis of the GRAMMY Award-winning ensemble Imani Winds, cellist Patrice Jackson of the Berklee School of Music, hornist Kevin Newton of Imani Winds, oboist Titus Underwood of the Nashville Symphony, bassist Patricia Weitzel of the Penn State College of Arts and Architecture and others.
Gateways Music Festival said educational programming includes the Young Musicians Institute: Rochester Day for Strings, a free, day-long, immersive program where young string players learn, rehearse, and perform alongside Gateways’ professional teaching artists.
From intimate recitals to bold orchestral collaborations, the Festival celebrates the richness of Black musical excellence and the communal joy of gathering.
“By celebrating and sustaining the tradition of Black classical artistry, providing a home for musicians who carry the tradition forward, and presenting performances that bring together audiences of all backgrounds, Gateways is writing its own classical narrative,” the Festival said.
“At Gateways, music isn’t just heard — it’s felt. It moves through the room, connecting people across time, tradition, and lived experience,” said Gateways Music Festival President and Artistic Director Alex Laing. “This fall, we’re not just presenting concerts — creating space for joy, recognition, and cultural memory. To see Black musicians performing at the highest level, especially in works by Black composers, is powerful. But to witness that in community — with others who value artistry, history, and belonging — that’s transformative. That’s Gateways.”
At the Fall Festival, the Gateways Chamber Players offer a one-night-only performance of collaboration, connection, and collective sound.
The Gateways Music Festival said, at the heart of the program is Coleridge-Taylor’s rarely heard Nonet in F Minor (1894) — a sweeping work of youthful brilliance by the Black British composer who challenged racial barriers in his time and whose music speaks powerfully to questions of presence, belonging, and artistic authority today.
It said the program also showcases the ensemble in smaller configurations — duos, trios, and other combinations — revealing different facets of the ensemble and the artists, which include violist Jordan Bak of the North Carolina School of the Arts, clarinetist Olivia Hamilton of the Minnesota Orchestra and Sioux City Symphony, violinist Kyle Lombard of the Saint Louis Symphony and rising-star pianist Joshua Mhoon, currently studying at the Juilliard School.
“The result is a performance alive with listening, dialogue, and imagination, honoring both the composer’s legacy and the rare occasion of these artists sharing the stage,” the Festival said.
For more information, visit www.gatewaysmusicfestival.org.
