Kilbourn Hall dedication and first concert.

Eastman Theatre (Kodak Hall) opens.

First American Composers’ Concert.

First live music broadcast from the Eastman School via station WHAM. The school was a pioneer in the broadcasting of live classical music.

Opening of the Annex on Swan Street to provide additional classrooms and practice rooms.

Eastman School Symphony Orchestra becomes the first student orchestra to give a series of nationally broadcast concerts over the National Broadcasting Company network.

Black composer R. Nathaniel Dett is awarded a master’s degree.

Opening of the Swan Street Sibley Library building, the first building specifically constructed to house a music collection.

First public jazz performance in Kilbourn Hall, when alumnus and faculty member, Jack End and his student ensemble took the stage to offer a “Program of Concert Music in the Jazz Idiom” in that year’s Festival of American Music.

Release of “American Concert Band Masterpieces,” the first of more than forty recordings for Mercury Records made by the Eastman Wind Ensemble, conducted by Frederick Fennell. First recording made on May 14; release in early Fall 1953.

Opening of the first residence hall for Eastman male students (Monroe Hall on Prince Street).

Establishment of Eastman’s Collegium Musicum Ensemble.

Announcement that members of the Eastman School of Music faculty would receive academic rank similar to the other colleges and schools of the university.

Igor Stravinsky begins a week-long residency at the Eastman School.

Opening of the Eastman School electronic music studio, established by Wayne Barlow.

Festivities begin in the fall to celebrate the school’s fiftieth anniversary, including recitals by violinist Henryk Szeryng (December 7, 1971), pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy (January 14, 1972),  pianist Rudolf Serkin (March 15, 1972), and violinist Isaac Stern (May 3, 1972).

Beginnings of a three-year renovation of the school’s facilities, which also involved the creation of new rehearsal and recital facilities (including Howard Hanson Hall and Schmitt Organ Recital Hall).

Claron McFadden is awarded the first William Warfield scholarship, established to provide financial assistance to talented Black voice students at Eastman.

The Eastman Philharmonia is selected to annually be the resident orchestra at the summer Heidelberg Castle Festival in Germany.

Seth McCoy, the first Black musician to hold a full-time teaching position at Eastman, joins the voice faculty.

Wynton Marsalis appears as soloist with the Eastman Wind Ensemble on a tour of the Eastern U.S. cities and Canada. The tour coincided with the release that month of the recording Carnaval! (CBS Masterworks), featuring Wynton Marsalis as guest soloist with the EWE. In September, 1987, Billboard Magazine reported that the Carnaval! recording had reached the top of the chart in the classical category.

Departure of the Eastman Wind Ensemble under the direction of Donald Hunsberger for the first of seven annual concert tours of Japan.

Ellen Koskoff becomes director of the new Ethnomusicology program and founds Gamelan Lila Muni.

Establishment of the Institute for Music Leadership.

Celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Sibley Music Library, founded at the University of Rochester as a community resource and later incorporated into the Eastman School.