The Eastman Theatre is the main building of the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester, located in downtown Rochester, New York.
The theater was established by industrialist George Eastman and opened on September 4, 1922, as a center for music, dance, and silent film, with orchestral and organ accompaniment.
The theatre is the primary hall for the Eastman School's larger ensembles, including its orchestras, wind ensembles, jazz ensembles, and chorale. It originally contained 3,094 seats, but has been substantially revised recently to become an approximately 2,400-seat concert hall with state-of-the-art acoustics optimized for symphonic, popular and chamber music performances.
The theater is the principal performance venue for the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Eastman Opera Theatre presents fully staged operatic productions each spring.
A $5 million renovation of the theater building was completed in October 2004. The Eastman Kodak company, founded by George Eastman, donated $10 million for a subsequent renovation that was completed in October 2009; the building's concert hall was named "Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre", in recognition of the donation.
Famous quotes containing the words eastman and/or theatre:
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—Crystal Eastman (1881–1928)
“Mankind’s common instinct for reality ... has always held the world to be essentially a theatre for heroism. In heroism, we feel, life’s supreme mystery is hidden. We tolerate no one who has no capacity whatever for it in any direction. On the other hand, no matter what a man’s frailties otherwise may be, if he be willing to risk death, and still more if he suffer it heroically, in the service he has chosen, the fact consecrates him forever.”
—William James (1842–1910)