The Arts

Dance
Rochester is home to the Garth Fagan Dance Troupe, one of the premiere modern dance troupes in the world. Its founder is the Tony Award-winning choreographer of Broadway's The Lion King. Rochester City Ballet performs traditional favorites along with challenging new works before thousands each year. Dance performances are offered by dozens of local troupes and organizations that belong to Dance Rochester. Classes in jazz, modern, ballet and other varieties abound.

Music
Founded by Kodak's George Eastman in 1922, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the leading American orchestras. The RPO, which performs in Eastman Theater, tours and records extensively, and is heavily involved in community outreach and education. Eastman School of Music, one of the top music schools in the country, offers concerts all year, many of them free. Hundreds of its alumni, including soprano Renee Fleming and the late bass-baritone William Warfield, have gone on to stellar careers in music.

Hochstein School of Music and Dance has a robust menu of private and group music and dance lessons, as well as performances by local and visiting artists in its renovated concert hall. Mercury Opera is a professional quality chorus that performs opera throughout the region. The Commission Project's composer-in-residence program offers area students a chance to work with professional musicians.

The Rochester area has many community musical groups, plus an active nightclub scene where plenty of local bands play. Local radio stations, including NPR affiliate WXXI-AM/FM and noncommercial stations, play an eclectic mix of classical, jazz, hip-hop, blues, alternative and reggae. Festivals include Rochester MusicFest, staging R&B, jazz and blues acts at outdoor venues throughout the city. Rochester International Jazz Festival brings big-name jazz acts to Rochester in early June.

Theater
Rochester has no shortage of quality live theater. Geva Theatre Center, located in the historic Naval Armory building, is the most attended regional theater in Upstate New York. Shipping Dock Theatre and Downstairs Cabaret Theatre productions have gone on to successful runs in New York and elsewhere. Rochester Children's Theatre is a resident professional theatre that performs to diverse audiences around the area. Aspiring actors will find opportunities in community and college productions. And Broadway fans are pleased Rochester is one of the premiere cities in America for traveling Broadway shows, brought here by the Rochester Broadway Theatre League.

Visual arts
Said to have the best-balanced collection in Upstate New York, the Memorial Art Gallery hosts traveling exhibitions from around the world, including recent shows of Maxfield Parrish and Edgar Degas. Dozens of intimate local galleries showcase local and regional art. In its 1920s Art Deco building in the city's East End, the Little Theatre brings foreign and art films to Rochester moviegoers. Visual Studies Workshop is an internationally recognized center for media studies located in two historic buildings in the Neighborhood of the Arts. Rochester Contemporary fosters and promotes ideas through alternative art in its new East End digs. And the award-winning ArtWalk in the Neighborhood of the Arts features benches, sidewalk imprints and light-pole art by area artists whose designs were selected through an open call.

Film and Photography
Popular photography was born in Rochester. George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film houses one of the best and oldest cinematic collections in the world. Many of the films the museum preserves are sole surviving prints. Rochester Institute of Technology is renowned for its photography program. The work of its students and graduates is in evidence in galleries and cafes around the area. The High Falls Film Festival recognizes the achievements of women in film and video. The ImageOut film festival features the work of film and video makers who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender.

Literature
Rochester has an incredible concentration of talented writers. Many creative writers have called our city home, including Nicholson Baker, John Ashbery and Andrea Barrett. Our writers have won Pulitzers, Macarthur fellowships, PEN/Faulkner awards, the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Rochester Arts & Lectures, SUNY College at Brockport Writers Forum and other organizations bring well-known writers to Rochester to share their craft. Local writers learn through workshops and retreats at Writers & Books, one of the nation's leading literary centers. Poets and others frequent open mike nights and poetry slams at area cafes.

Museums
Visit our Exploring the Area page for a list of some great Rochester area museums.