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LEE KOONCE
President & Artistic Director, Gateways Music Festival

Speaking at The Summer of 2020

Lee Koonce has served as President & Artistic Director of Gateways Music Festival since 2016.  He has served on the Gateways board since 1997 and, from 2009 until 2016, he served as Chair of the Festival’s Artistic Programs Committee, a group of Gateways musicians who oversee the Festival’s programming.

Founded in 1993 by pianist Armenta Hummings Dumisani in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 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 performances.”  The annual, six-day festival brings together approximately 125 musicians for more than 50 solo, chamber and orchestra performances.  Gateways musicians are players in professional symphony orchestras, faculty at music schools and conservatories and freelancers.  Based in Rochester, NY, the Festival will launch its first national tour in spring 2022.

Prior to his appointment as President & Artistic Director of Gateways Music Festival, Lee served as Executive Director of Ballet Hispanico in New York City for two years.  And from 2006-2013, he served as Executive Director of Third Street Music School Settlement, also in New York City, the oldest and one of the largest community music schools in the nation. From 1996 to 2001, he served as Director of Community Relations for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Lee earned a bachelor of music in Piano Performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, a bachelor of arts in Spanish Literature from Oberlin College, and a master of music in Piano Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music.

LEE KOONCE
President & Artistic Director, Gateways Music Festival

Speaking at The Summer of 2020

Lee Koonce has served as President & Artistic Director of Gateways Music Festival since 2016.  He has served on the Gateways board since 1997 and, from 2009 until 2016, he served as Chair of the Festival’s Artistic Programs Committee, a group of Gateways musicians who oversee the Festival’s programming.

Founded in 1993 by pianist Armenta Hummings Dumisani in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 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 performances.”  The annual, six-day festival brings together approximately 125 musicians for more than 50 solo, chamber and orchestra performances.  Gateways musicians are players in professional symphony orchestras, faculty at music schools and conservatories and freelancers.  Based in Rochester, NY, the Festival will launch its first national tour in spring 2022.

Prior to his appointment as President & Artistic Director of Gateways Music Festival, Lee served as Executive Director of Ballet Hispanico in New York City for two years.  And from 2006-2013, he served as Executive Director of Third Street Music School Settlement, also in New York City, the oldest and one of the largest community music schools in the nation. From 1996 to 2001, he served as Director of Community Relations for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Lee earned a bachelor of music in Piano Performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, a bachelor of arts in Spanish Literature from Oberlin College, and a master of music in Piano Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music.