The Rochester Review, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, USA
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Rochester

University of Rochester

1918 George Eastman purchases the Institute of Musical Art for $28,000. He then sells it to the University for $1.

1919 Eastman announces his gift to fund the school and acquires a site for a new building on Gibbs, Swan, and Main streets.

1921 The Eastman School of Music opens on September 19 with Alf Klingenberg as director.

Future director Howard Hanson becomes the first American to win the Prix de Rome for composition--the first of many such awards that will go to faculty and alumni.

1922 The Eastman Theatre opens with much fan- fare on September 4.
1924 27-year-old Howard Hanson becomes director of the Eastman School.

The five-story Swan Street annex is built adjacent to the theater.

1925 The first American Composers' Concert is held.

1926 A graduate department is established.

A 10-story annex to the school is built, following construction of women's dormitories the year before.

1930 The first annual Festival of American Music takes place.

The first master's degree recipients graduate.

1931 The history of the Eastman Theatre as a movie palace comes to an end because of financial losses.

1934 The school begins recording performances by students and faculty.

1937 Sibley Music Library moves to new quarters on Swan Street.

1944 Howard Hanson wins the Pulitzer Prize. In later years, seven more will be awarded to faculty and alumni.

1945 By the end of World War II, more than 500 students and alumni have served in the armed forces, with nine casualties.

1951 As Joe in the film version of Showboat, William Warfield '42E, '88E (DMA) presents his acclaimed rendition of "Ol' Man River."

1952 Doriot Anthony Dwyer '43E becomes principal flutist of the Boston Symphony, the first woman to hold a principal chair in a major American orchestra.

Frederick Fennell '37E, '39E (Mas) creates the Eastman Wind Ensemble, a pioneering force in the symphonic wind-band movement.

1953 The school offers a new degree, Doctor of Musical Arts, one of the first of its kind in the country.

1954 On December 9, a four-ton section of the ceiling falls on empty seats in the Eastman Theatre. Onstage, Dr. Herman Genhart continues his rehearsal of the Bach Magnificat with the Eastman School Orchestra and Chorus.

1958 Howard Hanson establishes the Eastman Philharmonia, later called by Newsweek "one of the world's great orchestras."

Bye Bye Birdie opens on Broadway, the first of three Tony Award-winning musicals by Charles Strouse '47E.

1961 State Department selects Eastman Philharmonia to play 49 concerts overseas.

1964 Howard Hanson retires; Walter Hendl becomes director.

1968 Composer Wayne Barlow, an Eastman alumnus three times over, establishes the electronic music studio.

1971 50 years after its opening, the Eastman Theatre is renovated and restored to its original elegance through a gift of Eastman Kodak.

1972 Robert Freeman becomes director, succeeding Walter Hendl.

Rayburn Wright '43E and Bill Dobbins inaugurate a graduate program in Jazz Studies and Contemporary Media. Jazz students go on to win countless annual awards from Down Beat magazine.

1980 The Eastman Philharmonia becomes the resident orchestra of the Heidelberg Castle Festival.

1983 The Eastman Philharmonia, with baseball great Willie Stargell narrating, performs (Pulitzer Prize-winning Eastman professor) Joseph Schwantner's "New Morning for the World" at the Kennedy Center and other major venues nationwide.

1987 Carnaval, a CBS Masterworks recording of band music of the early 20th century performed by cornetist Wynton Marsalis and the Eastman Wind Ensemble, reaches number one on the Billboard compact disc charts.

1989 Eastman Place opens, with the Sibley Music Library moving to new quarters.

1990 Recordings of Civil War music by Frederick Fennell and the Eastman Wind Ensemble are heard throughout Ken Burns's enormously popular TV series, The Civil War.

The Wind Ensemble embarks on the first of its biennial tours of Japan, playing to SRO audiences throughout the country.

1991 The Student Living Center opens, replacing the Prince Street residence halls.

1995 The school inaugurates its Gateways Music Festival, a celebration of black classical music, one of a number of initiatives aimed toward diversifying audiences.

U.S. News & World Report lists Eastman's master's program as tied for top ranking with Juilliard and Indiana.

1996 Eastman Initiatives, the school's innovative, comprehensive plan to reshape musical education, garners attention from the press and inquiries from other music schools across the country.


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