Celebrating 100 years of music at Eastman School

A friend turns 100, what do you say? In the case of the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester, which has been celebrating its 100th birthday with a variety of performances, perhaps the best thing Rochester can say is thanks.

It’s hard to imagine Rochester without the Eastman. It isn’t just that the school has trained thousands of musicians, both university students and many high school students who have taken lessons at the Eastman.

It’s also that Eastman graduates have stayed here and taught in our schools, directed local choirs, played church organs, essentially put music in our lives. (Full disclosure: Once in a while, Eastman students have taken journalism from me at UR. They’re terrific.)

The school began in 1921, thanks to George Eastman’s money and foresight. In March 1922, it opened its doors to the public, an occasion that was marked last month by a series of performances.

There are currently 19 people with Eastman connections on this column’s list of Remarkable Rochesterians. Some of them grew up in the Rochester area and studied at Eastman and went on to widespread recognition. This group includes the singers William Warfield and Renée Fleming, composer Alec Wilder, conductor Mitch Miller, jazz musician Chuck Mangione and drummer Steve Gadd.

More: This day in Rochester history, Aug. 26: Singer William Warfield dies

Others grew up elsewhere and then came to Rochester and the Eastman School. They include Howard Hanson, a native of Nebraska, who arrived in 1924 to become the school’s director, a position he held for 40 years.

Ruth Watanabe is on the list, as well. Hanson brought her to Rochester in 1942 from an internment camp where Japanese-Americans were being held. She went on to build a world-class collection of music manuscripts.

R. Nathaniel Dett, another Remarkable, was an established composer who came to the Eastman for his master’s degree and then stayed in Rochester composing, directing choirs and campaigning for civil rights.

There are also notables on the list who studied at the Eastman but went on to other careers. Among them are the novelist Nicholson Baker, the cookbook author Mollie Katzen, and Irene Gossin, who studied singing at the Eastman and became an environmental activist and the town of Penfield supervisor.

The Remarkable Rochesterians list was never meant to be all-inclusive, but my sense is that it under-represents the talent that has been connected to the Eastman School. Here, as a way of celebrating the school’s 100th anniversary, let’s make these additions to the list that can be found at https://data.democratandchronicle.com/remarkable-rochesterians.

Jeff Tyzik (1951- ): The principal pops conductor of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra since 1993, the native of Hyde Park, Dutchess County, earned both his undergraduate and master’s degrees from the Eastman School of Music and went on to tour with Chuck Mangione, playing lead trumpet. He released solo albums and co-produced several Mangione albums, and he collaborated with Doc Severinsen and produced a Grammy Award winning album, “The Tonight Show Band, with Doc Severinsen, Vol. 1.” In addition to the RPO, he is pops conductor for other orchestras, including the Dallas Symphony and Oregon Symphony.

The Ying Quartet: The critically acclaimed string quartet was begun in 1988 by the four Ying siblings – Timothy, Janet, Phillip and David – when they were students at the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music. After Eastman, the Illinois natives took up residence in Jesup, Iowa, as part of a National Endowment for the Humanities program. While there, the quartet won the 1993 Naumburg Chamber Music Award, and, since then, the group, now the quartet in residence at the Eastman, has recorded extensively and performed widely nationally and internationally. Timothy Ying left the group in 2009 and his position is now occupied by Robin Scott.

Roy McCurdy (1935- ): The celebrated jazz drummer and Rochester native studied with Bill Street at the Eastman School of Music while he was a student at Madison High School, and he played in local clubs and drum corps. He was in the Air Force band, and, returning to Rochester, joined a group led by Chuck and Gap Mangione. He later worked with Art Farmer and Sonny Rollins and was a member of the Cannonball Adderley Quintet. He has played with a wide variety of artists, including Sarah Vaughn and Nancy Wilson. He teaches in the USC Thornton School of Music and is in the Rochester Music Hall of Fame.

More: What you need to know about the Rochester Music Hall of Fame 2020 inductees

From his home in Geneseo, Livingston County, retired senior editor Jim Memmott, writes Remarkable Rochester, who we were, who we are. He can be reached at jmemmott@gannett.com or write Box 274, Geneseo, NY 14454.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Eastman School of Music has benefited Rochester NY