Rochester Music Suits Any Style

Rochester-born music stars like Teddy Geiger and Tweet owe a debt of gratitude to an amateur pianist who put Rochester on the music map in the early 1900s. George Eastman developed the blueprint for a music school to bring the highest level of artistry and creative brilliance in music to Rochester, N.Y. The formation of the Eastman School of Music in 1921 bore fruit in quick time, and has yielded seven Pulitzer Prize-winning composers and several Grammy Award winners.

Eastman School alums include flugelhorn player and composer Chuck Mangione, soprano Renee Fleming, drummer Steve Gadd, jazz musician Jeff Tyzik and oboist and conductor Mitch Miller, whose "Sing Along with Mitch" TV show became an iconic classic of the early '60s. Family audiences were instructed to "follow the bouncing ball" superimposed over the words to songs that were national standards. He also played an important role as an executive at Columbia Records, producing major artists from Sinatra to Doris Day, and signing Bob Dylan to his first major label.

Rochester's diverse musical history includes bandleader Cab Calloway, whose "Minnie the Moocher" is an enduring treasure. He performed tirelessly until he died in 1994 at the age of 86. Wendy O. Williams left the comforts of a suburban neighborhood to flaunt her aggressive, unruly punk-rock theatrics with the Plasmatics from 1978 to 1988, a gambit that included two arrests for lewd behavior and simulating sex onstage. She died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1998. Gadd, who claims to be "arguably the most recorded drummer in history," has pounded a beat with notable musicians such as Paul Simon, James Taylor, Eric Clapton, Steely Dan and Chick Corea both on stage and in-studio. Gadd was honored by Zildjian cymbals in 2006 for his contributions to the profession. Rochester's best known rocker is probably Lou Gramm, lead vocalist for Foreigner. With his band, Gramm achieved top 10 records, including a number one international smash with "I Want to Know What Love Is" in 1984. He suffered from a brain tumor in 2002, but has recovered and is performing again.