{"id":20790,"date":"2024-10-07T10:37:55","date_gmt":"2024-10-07T14:37:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esm4.esm.rochester.edu\/sibley\/?p=20790"},"modified":"2025-10-31T13:26:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T17:26:25","slug":"oct7-oct13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esm4.esm.rochester.edu\/sibley\/2024\/10\/oct7-oct13\/","title":{"rendered":"Oct 7th-13th: National Coming Out Day at Eastman"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1728056855243{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”]Published on Oct 7th, 2024<\/em><\/p>\n

Back to This Week at Eastman<\/a><\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” css=”.vc_custom_1658327150379{background-color: #f4f4f4 !important;}”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1726852979961{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”][vc_custom_heading text=”2003: National Coming Out Day at Eastman” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1728056891740{border-top-width: 0px !important;border-right-width: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 1px !important;border-left-width: 0px !important;border-left-style: solid !important;border-right-style: solid !important;border-top-style: solid !important;border-bottom-style: solid !important;border-radius: 1px !important;border-color: #dddddd !important;}”][vc_row_inner equal_height=”yes” content_placement=”top” gap=”10″][vc_column_inner css=”.vc_custom_1728065387260{padding-top: 10px !important;padding-bottom: 10px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”20799″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1728064703014{margin-top: 20px !important;}”][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner equal_height=”yes” content_placement=”top” gap=”10″][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1728397285245{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”]Twenty-one years ago this week, on Friday, October 10th, 2003, National Coming Out Day was observed at the Eastman School OF Music, planned and coordinated by the Eastman Pride Network, a student affinity group of LGB students.[1]<\/a>\u00a0<\/sup> Approximately 50 students were involved in the organization and execution, which included the distribution of flyers and rainbow ribbons at a station in the main hall (today Lowry Hall).\u00a0 In addition, a display of Coming Out Stories had been created, featuring the stories of Eastman students alongside those of well-known individuals.\u00a0 While this may or may not have been the first-ever National Coming Out Day observance at Eastman, suffice it to say that October 10th, 2003 remains singularly noteworthy in that it received prominent attention in the pages of Eastman Notes, <\/em>promoted with no less than a color photograph on one of the covers. In that photo, three students beamed into the camera with manifest joy on their faces; they were Zachary Wilder (later BM \u201806E), Brian Kittredge (later MM \u201804E), and Antonio Haynes (later BA \u201807), who was then serving as the President of the Eastman Pride Network. This feature and photograph marked the first-ever LGBTQ-concerned news to have been published in Eastman Notes<\/em>.[2]<\/a> <\/sup>\u00a0With this publicity the Eastman School was unmistakably serving notice that a safe, supportive, and friendly environment was a priority at the downtown campus.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner equal_height=”yes” content_placement=”top” gap=”5″ css=”.vc_custom_1728069352084{margin-top: 0px !important;margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1728062726600{padding-top: 10px !important;padding-bottom: 10px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”20801″ img_size=”medium” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” css=”.vc_custom_1728395889211{margin-bottom: 20px !important;}”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1728062736248{padding-top: 10px !important;padding-bottom: 10px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”20802″ img_size=”medium” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” css=”.vc_custom_1728395905714{margin-top: 20px !important;}”][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner equal_height=”yes” content_placement=”top” gap=”10″ css=”.vc_custom_1728062830325{margin-top: -20px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}”][vc_column_inner css=”.vc_custom_1728062797514{margin-top: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1728069380062{padding-bottom: 10px !important;}”]<\/p>\n

\u25ba Eastman Notes, vol. 22, no. 1, December, 2003. Front and back covers. <\/span><\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner equal_height=”yes” content_placement=”top” gap=”10″][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1728398673601{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”]Arriving at the year 2003, the history of National Coming Out Day had not been long. \u00a0At the behest of two professionals\u2014psychologist Robert Eichberg[3]<\/sup><\/a>, and activist-political leader Jean O\u2019Leary[4]<\/a><\/sup>\u2014National Coming Out Day was inaugurated to serve as a vehicle for openness and positivity.\u00a0 The 1988 observance was timed with the first anniversary of the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.\u00a0 The first National March had taken place in 1979, ten years after the Stonewall uprising that had marked the birth of gay liberation in the United States; by 1979 the gay and lesbian community had won only a slight string of political and legislative victories nationally. The Second National March (1987) numbered no fewer than 750,000 participants, and was informed by the urgency, desolation, heartbreak, and outrage that had reached a boiling point after the deaths of thousands from AIDS in the face of a de facto refusal by the Federal Government to involve itself in any substantive way to combat HIV.[5]<\/a><\/sup> \u00a0National Coming Out Day was thus launched in a spirit of urgency and fervor to rally the LGB community and to heighten visibility.\u00a0 An annual event since 1988, National Coming Out Day is observed by individuals and organizations alike; it is widely covered in the broadcast and print media and on social media.\u00a0 Its fundamental premise is that individuals will openly acknowledge themselves as LGBTQ people in a spirit of positivity.\u00a0 The advantages of coming out, both for the individuals concerned and for society at large, have been well documented.<\/p>\n

Today, LGBTQ students at the Eastman School are represented by the Eastman Queer Alliance (EQ), established in the fall of 2022.\u00a0 EQ was profiled<\/a> by Anna Reguero (Office of Communications) on the ESM website on the occasion of Pride earlier this year.\u00a0 EQ\u2019s current President is Freddie Kartoz; the faculty advisors are Alison d\u2019Amato and Jean Pedersen.\u00a0 As Freddie Kartoz shared with me, Eastman\u2019s first openly trans student enrolled here two years before Freddie\u2019s own enrollment; since then, trans students have increased in number and visibility at Eastman.\u00a0 Thus, what had been in an earlier time a solely LGB focus has broadened to affirm an all-inclusive LGBTQ vision, embracing trans students and supporting them in living their lives openly.\u00a0 Moreover, one core aspect of EQ\u2019s mission is to ensure that Pride will remain active and relevant on a year-round basis.\u00a0 EQ succeeds the group Spectrum which was discontinued in 2020 during the pandemic.\u00a0 Spectrum had, in turn, been preceded by the Eastman Pride Network, whose details I don\u2019t happen to know at this time.\u00a0 The history of LGBTQ student involvement at Eastman has yet to be written, and in the service of the Eastman School of Music Archives, I would very much like to hear from Eastman alumni, students, and faculty members who might have information to share.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner equal_height=”yes” content_placement=”top” gap=”10″][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1728397358214{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”]In the context of Eastman students observing National Coming Out Day in 2003, and with the milestone that was inherent in Eastman\u2019s promotion of same, it is fitting to acknowledge that the year 2003 had already seen one other gesture that we might now regard as a step in the Eastman School\u2019s journey towards full diversity, equity, and inclusion.\u00a0 Five months earlier, at Commencement on Sunday, May 18th, 2003, the invited Commencement speaker had publicly spoken of the expulsion of an Eastman student for being gay\u2014the first acknowledgement on record of a gay student\u2019s expulsion from Eastman.\u00a0 Since my own arrival at Eastman in 1999, I had heard, on several occasions, oral transmission of rumors and suppositions regarding the ill treatment of gay students in earlier decades, suggesting a dark chapter in the school\u2019s past that had gone undocumented. Now, in 2003, Charles Strouse, BM \u201847E, having personal knowledge on the subject, invoked the expulsion of his friend and classmate William Flanagan.\u00a0 Speaking at Commencement, Mr. Strouse (b. 1928), composer of several Broadway musicals, shared some details of his Eastman years and warmly recounted his friendships with two classmates, the first of whom was Jim Brown, about whom Mr. Strouse told a charming anecdote.[6]<\/a> <\/sup>\u00a0He continued:<\/p>\n

And then there was another friend, and why shouldn\u2019t I take this time to mention his name?\u00a0 He was my closest friend at Eastman, a fine creative mind, and the first person who said to me I was a good composer.\u00a0 How could I ever forget that?\u00a0 His name was William Flanagan, and he was expelled from Eastman for being gay.\u00a0 It\u2019s a mark of how far we\u2019ve come that I can say that.[7]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1728396127594{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”20808″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” onclick=”img_link_large” css=”.vc_custom_1728398378103{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner equal_height=”yes” content_placement=”top” gap=”10″][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1728396194380{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”]<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

I was in the audience that day, and in the moment, I was riveted to my seat by Mr. Strouse\u2019s words.\u00a0 Someone with personal knowledge on the subject was finally speaking out.\u00a0 Moreover, given the mor\u00e9s of U.S. society in pre-Stonewall years and also the arch-conservatism of ESM Director Howard Hanson, it is not difficult to surmise the expulsions of other gay students besides the late Mr. Flanagan.\u00a0 Mr. Strouse\u2019s Commencement address was later published in its entirety in Eastman Notes, <\/em>but it is worthwhile to listen to the recording, which captures his measured tone, laden with respect at the mention of his friend.\u00a0 Mr. Strouse did not happen to elaborate on Mr. Flanagan that day, and I care to do so here.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner equal_height=”yes” content_placement=”top” gap=”10″ css=”.vc_custom_1728062743282{margin-top: 0px !important;margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_column_inner width=”2\/3″ css=”.vc_custom_1728062726600{padding-top: 10px !important;padding-bottom: 10px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”20810″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” onclick=”img_link_large” css=”.vc_custom_1728063245266{margin-bottom: 20px !important;padding-top: 10px !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”20812″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” onclick=”img_link_large” css=”.vc_custom_1728063365645{padding-top: 20px !important;}”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″ css=”.vc_custom_1728062736248{padding-top: 10px !important;padding-bottom: 10px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_column_text css=””]\u25ba From the chronological file of concert programs, Eastman School of Music Archives. Music by William Flanagan was programmed in at least two concerts of Original Compositions during his years at Eastman. <\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”20814″ img_size=”medium” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”img_link_large” css=”.vc_custom_1728398361223{margin-top: 20px !important;margin-bottom: 20px !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”20813″ img_size=”medium” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”img_link_large” css=”.vc_custom_1728398369855{margin-bottom: 20px !important;padding-top: 10px !important;}”][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner equal_height=”yes” content_placement=”top” gap=”5″ css=”.vc_custom_1651867019372{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1728398733067{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”]William Flanagan, born in Detroit in 1923, entered the annals of 20th-century American music as both composer and writer. \u00a0As with many an Eastman student in the school\u2019s early decades, his footprint at the Eastman School is restricted to a handful of documents.\u00a0 His transcript confirms that he was enrolled for three years\u2014from September, 1943 until June, 1946, as confirmed by the Office of the Registrar\u2014and it ends with a succinct comment indicating \u201crecommended to discontinue\u201d by the administrative committee in June, 1946.[8]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0 We see Mr. Flanagan in the yearbooks of 1944, 1945, and 1946 (displayed here); in an earlier time, the Eastman School published yearbook photographic representation of all students, not restricting the class photos to the senior class.\u00a0 Further, the printed programs of recitals of original compositions by composition majors in 1945 and 1946 (displayed here) cite works by him, both of which instrumental works.\u00a0 He would soon embrace vocal music, which would prove to be his natural medium.\u00a0 From the late 1940s onwards, his career trajectory was reasonably straightforward, if not in fact happy on a personal level.\u00a0 Mr. Flanagan spent two summers at Tanglewood, studying first with Arthur Honegger and then with Aaron Copland, who was a huge influence on him.\u00a0 Afterwards, he studied for two years with David Diamond[9]<\/a> <\/sup>in New York City, where he took up residence and would remain permanently.\u00a0 Turning to writing as a professional source of income, Mr. Flanagan became a respected reviewer, essayist, and critic, writing for such journals as Musical America, New York Herald Tribune, <\/em>and ultimately Stereo Review, <\/em>where he was employed at the time of his death.[10]<\/a>\u00a0<\/sup> In addition, he wrote highly literary jacket notes for many LP sound recordings.\u00a0 He is profiled in several reference sources, including a biographical article by his friend Ned Rorem in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, <\/em>now appearing digitally in Oxford Music Online[11]<\/a><\/sup>.\u00a0 Sadly, his discography today is not extensive; several analog-era CRI (Composer Recordings, Inc.) recordings of his music are now out of print. (Note that the Sibley Music Library holds copies of same in its recordings stacks.) Nevertheless, today on YouTube one can access the commercial recording of his orchestral work A Concert Ode<\/em><\/a>\u00a0 <\/em>by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (which premiered the work); live performances of his gorgeously lyrical Chaconne<\/em><\/a> for violin and piano, and the song \u201cValentine for Sherwood Anderson\u201d<\/a> with text by Gertrude Stein; and the CRI recording of his vocal chamber work \u201cAnother August\u201d.<\/a>\u00a0 In addition, for those readers who are in the UR network, the Naxos Music Library offers access to recordings of the songs \u201cValentine for Sherwood Anderson\u201d and \u201cHorror Show\u201d.\u00a0 (The latter might well have been influenced by Mr. Flanagan\u2019s boyhood experience of music in films, an aspect of his musical upbringing noted by his sometime romantic partner and occasional artistic collaborator Edward Albee.[12]<\/a><\/sup>)\u00a0 In the realm of vocal music, Mr. Flanagan also composed two operas with librettos by Mr. Albee (the second opera was not completed).<\/p>\n

Following his invited appearance at Eastman\u2019s Commencement, Charles Strouse later recounted his friendship with Mr. Flanagan in his autobiography (2008).\u00a0 Admitted to Eastman at the tender age of 15, the young Strouse was beset by tremendous insecurity and social isolation as a new freshman.\u00a0 Although he was straight, he took up socially\u00a0 \u201c. . . with a new circle of male friends who seemed to understand my feelings.\u00a0 They were all homosexual in a 1940s world that considered their lifestyle to be illicit, immoral, and unpatriotic.\u201d\u00a0 (Illicit, immoral, unpatriotic: <\/em>today, in 2024, we continue to hear those same words, relentlessly pushed by some on the political and religious right.)\u00a0 Mr. Strouse recalled Mr. Flanagan as one of the leaders of that circle, describing him as \u201ctall, cynical, sallow (he always drank), Irish Catholic, brilliant . . .<\/em> .\u201d\u00a0 (The emphasis is Mr. Strouse\u2019s own.)\u00a0 As time passed, Mr. Flanagan did, indeed, become Mr. Strouse\u2019s closest friend at Eastman, just as Strouse had shared at Commencement. \u00a0\u201cI used to trail him around, copying his moves, his attitudes.\u00a0 We all did.\u201d\u00a0 Strouse frequently took refuge in Flanagan\u2019s dorm room for company and looked to him for encouragement in his composing. In general, he \u201cidolized\u201d older student. Interestingly, Strouse doesn\u2019t mention Flanagan\u2019s expulsion in the book,[13]<\/a><\/sup> \u00a0but instead, segues from the Eastman years to having social and professional contact with Flanagan in New York City in the later 1940s.\u00a0 Strouse later describes Flanagan\u2019s decline after the break-up of his relationship with playwright Edward Albee (1928-2016), a period when Flanagan was \u201cdrinking more and more . . . . I wanted to be there for him, and often invited Bill over for dinner, but I was now married with children , and it was hard to be that support he needed.\u201d\u00a0 Strouse\u2019s grief after Flanagan\u2019s untimely death in 1969 is especially acute, asking himself , \u201c. . . was I truly a friend to him? Could I have helped save him?\u00a0 The guilt eats at me even now.\u201d[14]<\/a>\u00a0<\/sup> \u00a0Poignant words.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner equal_height=”yes” content_placement=”top” gap=”10″][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1728398758705{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”]Another composer who counted William Flanagan as a close friend was Ned Rorem (1923-2022), who maintained daily contact with Mr. Flanagan over the course of several years.\u00a0 The two men shared several commonalities: both were dedicated composers of song; both adored the music of Ravel and both nursed an affinity for the French (as opposed to the German) aesthetic; and as composers, both were proponents of a basic tonality in their respective compositions.\u00a0 Mr. Rorem amply recounted their professional, social, and personal rapport in his diaries and essays.\u00a0 In particular, these lines from a 1987 diary entry, written with Mr. Rorem\u2019s characteristic candor and occasional irreverence, capture much of Mr. Rorem\u2019s regard for Mr. Flanagan and for his art:<\/p>\n

Bill Flanagan was my best friend among composers.\u00a0 From our first encounter in the autumn of 1946 until his death twenty-two [sic] years later, Bill and I had an intense (though always platonic) relationship, mostly happy though often rivalrous.\u00a0 Bill envied my slicker musical know-how and the footing I already had in the professional world.\u00a0 I envied his Jesuit education (my own non-musical training had been catch-as-catch-can) as well as an intellect that was quicker than mine. Decent looking if not handsome, he was vain of his person, and certainly his blue, blue eyes, as violent as they were kind, remain unforgettable, offset as they often were by his pale lavender T-shirts and tinted blond crew cut. Once he joined the American Composers Alliance in 1959 and became an \u201cofficial\u201d published composer, Bill lopped three years off his age, as Tennessee Williams had done, on the grounds that those years had vanished into the bottle, as well as into the thin air of vain aspiration.\u00a0 Actually he was two months older than I.\u00a0 When I returned for good from France in 1957, we grew closer.\u00a0 Between 1959 and 1961, acting on the premise that the simple Art Song might still prove vital in a period (this is apparent in retrospect) of highest instrumental complexity, we launched a successful series in Carnegie Recital Hall called \u201cMusic for the Voice by Americans\u201d.\u00a0 The common current practice of composers presenting themselves as stars was then unprecedented. \u00a0We had guest stars, too, notably Copland and Thomson, accompanying their own songs, and our vocalists included Patricia Neway, David Lloyd, Phyllis Curtin, Regina Sarfaty, Reri Grist, Veronica Tyler, all in full bloom, and representative of a now-vanished breed\u2014the recital singer.\u00a0 If we were partners in art as well as in crime, criticizing each other by day, cruising Eighth Street bars together by night, there were no emotional entanglements.\u00a0 Bill lived much of his adult life with Edward Albee, whose phenomenal success as a playwright became an obsession with him.\u00a0 When Edward rose, Bill, on a seesaw, sank.\u00a0 This is clear as I reread his old letters.[15]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

The closeness of the two men\u2019s relationship\u2014a platonic one, as Mr. Rorem more than once asserted\u2014cannot be overstated.\u00a0 Significantly, it was Mr. Rorem whom the authorities contacted upon finding Mr. Flanagan dead in his apartment in 1969.[16]<\/a>\u00a0<\/sup> Several months later, Mr. Rorem and Mr. Albee organized a memorial concert in Mr. Flanagan\u2019s honor, held on April 14, 1970 at the Whitney Museum of American Art, where Aaron Copland and Mr. Rorem both eulogized Mr. Flanagan.\u00a0 Mr. Albee eventually founded the William Flanagan Memorial Creative Persons Center at Montauk on Long Island, New York.\u00a0 Maintained by the Edward F. Albee Foundation<\/a>, the Center\u2019s announced mission is to serve writers and visual artists from all walks of life by providing time and space in which to work without disturbance.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1728396613358{margin-top: 20px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”20815″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image” css=”.vc_custom_1728398250436{margin-top: 20px !important;}”][vc_empty_space][vc_single_image image=”20838″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image” css=”.vc_custom_1728398260495{margin-top: 20px !important;}”][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner equal_height=”yes” content_placement=”top” gap=”5″ css=”.vc_custom_1651867019372{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text css=””]I have cited Eastman students observing National Coming Out Day 2003, and also the moment when a renowned and esteemed Eastman alumnus broke the silence on what had been a dark chapter in the Eastman School\u2019s history.\u00a0 These were two noteworthy occasions in the year 2003 that demonstrated forward motion towards a more just school environment.\u00a0 The students who organized to observe National Coming Out Day that October did so openly in a supportive environment, and without fear of reprisal; William Flanagan, expelled in 1946, could hardly have dreamed of such.\u00a0 Whether a completed Eastman degree would have appreciably altered or enhanced William Flanagan\u2019s professional trajectory remains an open question.\u00a0 The unalterable fact is that a talented and promising creative individual was expelled in punishment for his sexual orientation.\u00a0 The best that we might hope for now would be for accountability in the form of information brought to light to serve the historical record.\u00a0 This week at Eastman, in October, 2024, let us join in solidarity with our students who are observing National Coming Out Day.\u00a0 Let us all renew our dedication to living out our MELIORA values and to realizing full diversity, equity, and inclusion within our school community.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner equal_height=”yes” content_placement=”top” gap=”5″ css=”.vc_custom_1664300118267{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_column_inner css=”.vc_custom_1728396995226{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”][vc_separator color=”black” css=””][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1728397705683{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][1]<\/a>\u00a0 While National Coming Out Day is officially observed on October 11th each year, the Eastman observance on October 10th<\/sup> was presumably timed to maximize visibility at school on a weekday.<\/span><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a>\u00a0 Eastman Notes <\/em>began its run as Notes from Eastman <\/em>in 1966.\u00a0 The complete run of issues is archived at Ruth T. Watanabe Special Collections in the Sibley Music Library.<\/span><\/p>\n

[3]<\/a>\u00a0 Dr. Eichberg\u2019s book Coming Out: An Act of Love <\/em>(Plume, 1991) was immediately influential upon its publication. He died of AIDS-related complications in 1995 at the age of 50.<\/span><\/p>\n

[4]<\/a>\u00a0 Ms. O\u2019Leary (1948-2005), a former nun who came out as a lesbian, shared her personal journey in the book Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence <\/em>(Naiad Press, 1985). In 1972 she had been one of the founders of the Lesbian Feminist Liberation.<\/span><\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> The published literature on the history of the AIDS crisis\/epidemic\/holocaust (each of those three words was in the AIDS lexicon of the day), on its social and moral aspects, on the \u00a0record of action\/inaction by the U.S. Government, and the responses by the worldwide medical community, is voluminous.\u00a0 For just one title from the U.S. literature, I earnestly recommend Reports from the holocaust: the making of an AIDS activist <\/em>(St. Martin\u2019s Press, 1989) by playwright and activist Larry Kramer (1935-2020), who gained notoriety and influence as one of the founders of the Gay Men\u2019s Health Crisis and also of ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power).<\/span><\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> \u00a0Francis James (Jim) Brown (1925-2008), composer, a native of Rochester, New York and alumnus of the Eastman School of Music.\u00a0 Mr. Brown spent most of his professional life in the UK and in Greece.\u00a0 Today his manuscripts and professional papers are archived at the Sibley Music Library; a finding aid<\/a> is accessible on the SML website.<\/span><\/p>\n

[7]<\/a>\u00a0 78th<\/sup> Commencement, Eastman School of Music, Sunday, May 18, 2003.\u00a0 Recorded by the office of Technology and Media Production and preserved in the Eastman Audio Archive, call no. MO 1258.\u00a0 I am grateful to recording engineer Mike Farrington for his assistance in transferring the audio content from its original capture.<\/span>
\n[8]<\/a>\u00a0 Confidentiality policies precluded the sharing of any further information with me. I am grateful to my colleagues in the Registrar\u2019s Office for their consideration in confirming the dates of the late William Flanagan\u2019s enrollment.<\/span><\/p>\n

[9]<\/a>\u00a0 Composer David Diamond (1915-2005), a native of Rochester, New York and alumnus of the Eastman School of Music, maintained his own distance from the Eastman School to the end of his life as a result of his own personal tensions. Dr. Nadine Hubbs cited Mr. Diamond in her excellent book The Queer Composition of America\u2019s Sound: Gay Modernists, American Music, and National Identity <\/em>(University of California Press, 2004).<\/span><\/p>\n

[10]<\/a>\u00a0 A truly respectful appreciation of Mr. Flanagan and his work, written by Lester Trimble, was published in Stereo Review <\/em>shortly after Mr. Flanagan\u2019s death.<\/span><\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> \u00a0Further, in the journal literature one finds a fulsome appreciation of Mr. Flanagan\u2019s career by Edward Albee, published together with a catalogue of Mr. Flanagan\u2019s works, compiled by Mr. Rorem. \u201cWilliam Flanagan\u201d in the American Composers Alliance Bulletin, <\/em>IX\/4 (1961), 12-19.<\/span><\/p>\n

[12]<\/a>\u00a0 Ibid.<\/span><\/p>\n

[13]<\/a>\u00a0 Notwithstanding this omission, Mr. Strouse on record elsewhere stating that Mr. Flanagan was expelled from Eastman following \u201ca gay incident\u201d.\u00a0 \u201cCharles Strouse struts his stuff\u201d in Gay City News, <\/em>August 7, 2008<\/a>.\u00a0 Accessed on October 7, 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n

[14]<\/a>\u00a0 Put on a Happy Face: A Broadway Memoir <\/em>(Union Square Press, 2008). The quotations in this paragraph comes from pages 19 and 180.<\/span><\/p>\n

[15]<\/a>\u00a0 From the diary entry for September 12, 1987 in Lies: A Diary, 1986-1999 <\/em>(Counterpoint, 2000), pages 101-102.<\/span><\/p>\n

[16]<\/a> \u00a0The Later Diaries of Ned Rorem, 1961-1972<\/em> (North Point Press, 1983), page 270.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_empty_space]\n\n\n<\/svg>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1631195300893{margin-top: 40px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”3″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1728398858093-0502004c-1486-7″ taxonomies=”18″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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