At the time Northwestern completed construction of Regenstein Hall of Music in 1977, School of Music officials anticipated that another music building soon would arise just south of Regenstein.

They’re still waiting.

Twenty-five years later, Regenstein remains Music’s newest building. Pick-Staiger Concert Hall was built in 1975, and the Music Administration Building was completed more than a century earlier, when it was the home of NU’s Women’s College.

At present, MAB and the Music Practice Hall, better known as the beehive, have a shortage of practice and performance space, and the school lacks the money to replace the aging facilities

A well-respected faculty and world-class reputation at the school compensate for the problems, students and professors say. But even University President Henry Bienen is worried that a lack of adequate facilities eventually will drive away students and faculty members.

‘Too little space and no money’

The lot south of Regenstein, currently used for parking, is a natural choice for the site of a new music building, said Music Dean Bernard Dobroski, because the building would complete the “Arts Circle,” which includes Pick-Staiger and the Block Museum of Art.

Dobroski estimated a new building would require about $55 million to construct and outfit with furniture and equipment.

And he said he does not foresee an “angel” donating money to cover most or all of that cost.

“There are a number of individuals who we hope to go to,” he said. “But that’s a large chunk of money.”

Music sophomore Lyndsey McKay, who recently was appointed to NU’s Campus Master Planning Committee, said she plans to lobby extensively for a new music building.

“Definitely the prospect of getting a new music building is a priority for me,” she said. “When a Music student can’t get a practice room at a reasonable time of day, there’s something wrong.”

Rene Machado, associate dean for administration and finance, said many practice rooms and recital halls are available at off-peak hours.

“It’s really a question of not having the rooms during the times that students want to practice,” he said.

Students also are less willing to practice at the Beehive, for example, if they take lessons at Regenstein, he said.

“That’s just one of the difficulties of our facilities being sprawled across the campus,” he said.

To compensate for space constraints in School of Music buildings, students and faculty increasingly rely on buildings such as Parkes Hall, Vail Chapel and Alice Millar Chapel for practices and rehearsals.

After eight years as NU’s director of chapel music, Stephen Alltop said he has observed more students using chapels for recitals, especially during Spring Quarter, the prime season for senior recitals.

Alltop, a music performance studies lecturer, said the reason for the space crunch is not difficult to determine.

“It’s a fairly simple formula: too many activities, too little space and no money to remedy that,” he said.

Furthering students’ inabilitiy to find adequate practice space are ongoing Regenstein renovations, which include repainting practice rooms and fixing up the master classroom, Machado said.

“We’re really glad that they’re doing these renovations,” said Stephanie Zimmerman, a Music junior. “But, at the same time, the general consensus is that we wish they could have done it this summer.”

The School of Music plans to complete the renovations in time for a Nov. 19 celebration for the 25th anniversary of the $3.5 million gift from the Joseph and Helen Regenstein Foundation that funded Regenstein’s original construction. The celebration will be attended by both Joseph Regenstein III and his sister, Susan Frank.

However, as Zimmerman points out, renovations still do not address the root inadequacy of music facilities at NU.

“The problem remains that there just aren’t enough practice rooms,” she said. “There really isn’t any kind of renovation that can fix that.”

Compensation with Reputation

Music Prof. Gail Williams, who teaches French horn performance, said many students choose music schools based only on the instructors with whom they will study.

When she came to NU to earn her master’s degree, Williams said, she based her decision on the reputation of the horn professor.

“I had no idea about the school but I knew who taught horn, and that’s why I came here,” Williams said.

Williams, who has taught at NU since 1989, retired from performing with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1998 after nearly 20 years. She said all of NU’s brass faculty members have spent time playing with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra or another major symphony.

With their impressive performance experiences, NU’s Music professors can draw students who might otherwise attend a music conservatory for the intense focus those schools offer, she said.

“When it comes down to the individual professors, (NU) is as strong if not stronger than a lot of the conservatories because of the performing we’ve all done,” Williams said. “For me, you get the best of both worlds here. You get people who have done the playing, and you are in the university setting, which is closer to the real world than the conservatory setting.”

Music faculty and students say the school’s stellar reputation and academic distinction compensate for problems with facilities.

“Because we have an abundance of human resources, we’ve been able to overcome it,” Dobroski said.

He said NU consistently does a good job of recruiting and retaining faculty members who are internationally renowned. The reputation of professors and NU’s academic programs will continue to draw students who are serious about their music education, despite imperfect infrastructure, Alltop said.

“Ultimately, the finest facilities won’t replace the wisdom and experience of a fine faculty,” Alltop said. “I think that’s why many people choose Northwestern.”

Despite the optimism of professors, Bienen expressed concern in an October interview that the School of Music would lose professors if a major donor cannot be found for a new building. He also said he worried music students might choose not to come to NU because of a shortage of practice space.

“I worry about it all the time, but I don’t have $60 million for a new building,” Bienen said.

Fine-tuning Funding

Although the School of Music has not received a new building in a quarter century, plans for one are not included in the waning construction boom on campus.

While Dobroski said he is pleased with the recent expansion of other NU schools, he believes music education is vital for all students.

“I feel it’s as important, as basic, as the three Rs,” he said. “Unfortunately, I have to sometimes be patient.”

Few federal grants exist for music education, Dobroski said, and major donations are more likely to go for scientific research than for the arts.

The School of Music annually lags far behind NU’s other undergraduate schools in research awards. It averaged only $3,670 a year from 1998 to 2001. The school to receive the next smallest amount — the Medill School of Journalism — averaged $1.4 million over the same period, according to annual reports.

Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and McCormick School of Engineering topped all other schools at NU with averages of $33.4 million and $36.8 million over the same period.

Whenever music and the arts must compete with the sciences for funding, the latter usually wins, Alltop said.

“That’s just a fact of life,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean that there haven’t been some places where people have stepped forward with substantial donations for the arts.”

Not only must the School of Music compete for funding with other programs at NU, but it also competes for cultural arts dollars with outside organizations such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Dobroski said.

Although the Chicago Symphony Orchestra reported $16.9 million in contributions in 2001 and $17.8 million in 2002, the group also suffered a loss of $6.1 million from operations in 2002.

After Dobroski steps down as dean in July 200
3, he plans to spend the year traveling throughout the world to visit alumni and potential donors to let them know of the school’s need, he said.

“I use this phrase, but sincerely: I don’t fund-raise, I friend-raise,” he said. “You raise awareness and people of wealth will come to you.”