Powerful performances for artistry ever better.

Eastman School of Music students and faculty add rhythm to our daily lives, stirring our souls with powerful performances, blending notes, and uniting our community.

When industrialist George Eastman purchased the property on Gibbs and Main Street to build a school of music and theatre, one of his primary goals was to provide the citizens of Rochester with a place to study, make, and enjoy music. Etched on the façade of the famed Eastman Theatre is the phrase, “for the enrichment of community life.”

For more than a century, the Eastman School of Music and Eastman Community Music School have been engaged in enriching the lives of Rochesterians by all that occurs within our facilities, and also by the many programs that occur throughout the greater-Rochester community. The members of the Eastman community have a long legacy of forging partnerships with public and private schools, of creating off-campus concert series, and of volunteering with countless local organizations.

Examples of current programs and partnerships include “If Music be the Food,” where faculty and students join special guests for chamber music concerts to benefit Rochester’s Foodlink, a non-profit regional food bank; “Eastman to Go,” which sends more than 40 Eastman student chamber music groups into the community, performing for audiences from preschoolers to senior citizens; and “Third Thursdays Performing Arts and Culture Series,” presented at the University’s Medical Center. 

The Eastman Pathways program provides scholarships for dedicated and talented Rochester City School District students to pursue music at the Eastman Community Music School. Eastman’s world-class faculty guide our students through a rigorous course of study, including individual lessons, ensembles, music history and theory classes…and more!

Since the program’s inception in 1997, its student population has reflected Rochester’s rich cultural diversity: students from underrepresented communities account for over half of the graduating classes. 83% of Pathways graduates have gone on to attend college, and 47% chose to major in music.

Eastman Pathways honors the legacy of world-renowned baritone William Warfield, who graduated from both the RCSD and the Eastman School of Music. Graduates of the Pathways program have attended colleges such as Eastman, University of Rochester, Harvard, MIT, Columbia, the University of Miami, SUNY Fredonia, the Manhattan School of Music, and Juilliard.