The Gateways Festival Orchestra, the festival’s flagship ensemble comprised of 58 Black professional classical musicians drawn from leading symphony orchestras, conservatory faculties, and the international freelance community, will perform Igor Stravinsky’s iconic score for ”Firebird” live for the Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH)’s acclaimed production, April 16–19 at New York City Center.
The collaboration marks a rare artistic convergence between two legacy institutions — the musicians’ collective artistry elevating Stravinsky’s masterpiece with cultural resonance and depth, amplifying the power and brilliance of DTH’s dancers. They will take the stage in costumes designed by the late Geoffrey Holder — the same designs seen on Misty Copeland at the Oscars.
Renowned award-winning conductor Jeri Lynne Johnson will conduct the orchestra on April 16, 18, and 19. Tania León, Pulitzer Prize-winning conductor, composer, and first music director of DTH, will conduct the orchestra on April 17. Included will be works by Black composers Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Margaret Bonds, and George Walker, as well as Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
For tickets and more info, visit dancetheatreofharlem.org and nycitycenter.org.
The 2026 Gateways Spring Festival is honoring its founder, classical pianist Armenta Hummings Dumisani, on the occasion of her 90th birthday. This season includes a triumphant return to Winston-Salem, where Dumisani founded the group in 1993. She shaped it as a space where Black classical musicians could gather in affirmation, artistry, and shared culture.
Despite American classical orchestras’ closed door policy to Black musicians for many years, the music remained instrumental in many Black communities, particularly here in Harlem, where for over three decades, the AmNews featured a column written by Raoul Abdul, who covered classical music and opera performed by prominent singers and composers such as William Grant Still, soprano Camilla Williams, and baritone Simon Estes. Some of these renowned artists were among the many classical/opera artists who performed in his weekly Coffee House series in Harlem. It is likely that Abdul, having passed away in 2010, may have been aware of Gateways and wrote about them in their fledgling stage. If so, he would be pleased to see what they have accomplished to date.
“At Gateways, Black culture and classical music are not in conversation from a distance — they’re inseparable — and you don’t just hear it, you feel it. It moves through the room, connecting people across time, tradition, and lived experience,” said Gateways Music Festival President and Artistic Director Alex Laing.
For ticket info, visit gatewaysmusicfestival.org.
Technology, with its music downloads, smart phones, AI (knows all), social media, and music links ,has contributed to the silent disappearance of most record stores around the world. Ironically, one has to be a senior citizen to even understand the concept of a record store and how they once blossomed and thrived in every community like buzzing beehives.
Independent record store owners and employees felt an urgent need to form Record Store Day (RSD) in 2007. It’s a way to celebrate the unique culture of record stores and the special role they still play (in a much smaller capacity) in their communities for nearly 1,400 independently-owned record stores in the U.S. and thousands of similar stores internationally.
The annual event is held on a Saturday, this year April 18, and on Black Friday in November to celebrate independent record stores and the smaller neighborhood stores recognized as Mom & Pop record shops.
Today, Record Store Day is celebrated at independently owned brick-and-mortar record stores internationally. It features exclusive vinyl/CD releases, live performances, and in-store events, bringing fans and artists together to support local, brick-and-mortar music shops.
The first record store in the United States was George’s Song Shop in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, which was opened in 1932 by brothers Eugene and Bernie George; the first known Black-owned record store in the United States was Bill Hawkins’s shop in Cleveland, Ohio, in the 1950s. His store became a community hub where African American families — and those arriving during the Great Migration — could buy records, attend live performances, and meet artists.
The Record Shack, owned by Sikhula Shange, formerly on the corner of Eighth Ave. & 125th Street (across from the Apollo Theater), like Hawkins’s shop, served as a community hub where stars like James Brown, Carmen McRae, and Stevie Wonder appeared for autograph signings. Friends hung out at record stores; it was a good place to meet girls and buy hit 45 rpms or albums (for $2–$4). It was so cool then; salesmen played requests in hopes of a purchase — once he played Pharoah Sanders’s “Karma” (Impulse! 1969) for me, it was a done deal.
For Record Store Day on April 18, co-president of Zev Feldman, Resonance Records, pushes out a treasure chest of 11 releases. Five of these albums are from the massive archives of the late Chicago NEA Jazz Master Joe Segal, who operated the legendary Chicago club Joe Segal’s Jazz Showcase. They’re the first in an ongoing series Feldman will release as he digs through some 10,000 tapes to find the real jewels. Six days, later on April 24, which would have been Segal’s 100th birthday. All of these albums will be available on CD.
Four of the albums from the Segal archives are released on Resonance Records, and one is on Time Traveler Recordings.
We begin with saxophone innovator Joe Henderson’s “Consonance: Live at the Jazz Showcase,” a three-LP set, and his quartet with pianist Joanne Brackeen, bassist Steve Rodby, and drummer Danny Spencer captured in February 1978; Ahmad Jamal, “At the Jazz Showcase: Live in Chicago,” a two-LP set featuring the iconic pianist with bassist John Heard and drummer Frank Gant on March 20–21, 1976; and Yusef Lateef’s “Alight Upon the Lake: Live at the Jazz Showcase,” a three-LP set featuring Lateef with pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Bob Cunningham, and drummer Albert “Tootie” Heath, captured live in June of 1975. Liner notes are by Lateef biographer, esteemed journalist, and author Herb Boyd, plus interviews with Bennie Maupin, Wayne Segal, and more.
Roy Hargrove’s “BERN,” recorded at the International Jazzfestival in Bern, Switzerland, in May 2000, captures a vital, previously unissued Roy Hargrove date showcasing the then 30-year-old trumpeter/bandleader at the height of his powers. On Time Traveller Recordings, Terry Callier’s “At the Earl of Old Town,” is a two-LP set featuring the influential singer/songwriter at just 22 years old — a compelling never-before-released 1967 solo performance. Stream or download “At The Earl of Old Town” at https://s.disco.ac/grmduparqupv.
For complete listings and more, visit recordstoreday.com.