|
Armenta
Adams Hummings
is a former Associate Professor of Music at
the Eastman School of Music. She was
appointed in 1994 as Eastman's
Distinguished Community Mentor. Ms.
Hummings is a divorced mother of 4 sons;
professional violist, Amadi, Naval
Officer, Gus, Jr., and identical twins,
Martin and Marcus, educator and
psychologist respectively.
She
was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on June 27,
1936 to parents who loved music,
especially classical music. When she was
four years old and her brother was
seven, Albert and Estella Adams arranged
for them to take piano and violin
lessons at the New England Conservatory
in Boston, Massachusetts, during the
school year.
In 1954, Armenta enrolled as a piano
major at the Juilliard School of Music
from which she received both the
Bachelor and Master of Science Degrees
while a student of the eminent pianist
Sascha Gorodnitzki. During her second
year at Juilliard, Armenta won the piano
competition performing Schumann's Piano
Concerto in A minor with the Juilliard
Orchestra.
Her professional career includes several
critically acclaimed performances in New
York City at Avery Fisher Hall, Alice
Tully Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of
Art and Town Hall. In addition to
recitals and concerts in the United
States, her international performances
spanned twenty-seven countries on five
continents. Upon her return from a state
department tour, she was honored at a
reception at the State Department
attended by then Secretary of State,
Dean Rusk, in recognition of her
contributions to international
relations.
She was twice the recipient of the
Martha Baird Rockefeller Aid to Music
Grant. She was also winner of the John
Hay Whitney Competition, the New York
Musicians Club Piano Competition, the
Musical America Musician of the Year
Award, the National Association of Negro
Musicians Competition, and the first
Leeds International Competition Special
Prize. She has appeared at the Spoleto
Festival in Charleston, S.C., the
Beethoven Festival in Carbondale, IL,
and at the International Piano Festival
at the University of Maryland as Guest
Artist on the Great Performer Series.
She is founder and artistic director of
the Gateways Music Festival, a
nationwide festival celebrating the
achievements of African American
classical musicians. Founded in
Winston-Salem, N.C., in 1993, it was
presented at the Eastman School of Music
in 1995. Since then, the Rochester
community has presented the festival in
collaboration with the Eastman School of
Music every two years. In addition,
young musicians inspired by their
experiences at the Gateways Music
Festival are creating their own concert
series throughout the country. Armenta's
greatest source of pride is seeing young
people become architects of their own
future. |
