Tuesday at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, purple and white balloons rained down from the ceiling, their random pops punctuating the resounding blasts of the Northwestern Brass Ensemble’s performance of Music senior Erik Saras’s arrangement of a grand Wagnerian composition.
The pomp and circumstance was to commemorate one of the biggest construction projects in the School of Music’s history. Beginning in late 2009, NU will build a new music facility to replace the aging Music Administration Building on Elgin Road. The new building will be located near the lake front, between Regenstein Hall of Music and Pick-Staiger, and will house all of the school’s programs in one building for the first time.
A new building for Music was announced in 2005, along with a landscaping plan for an “arts green” in the surrounding area.
However, funding could not be secured, and the plans languished as other construction projects on campus proceeded.
After an introduction by the Dean of Music, Toni-Marie Montgomery, NU president Henry Bienen took the podium Tuesday afternoon to make the announcement in front of the assembled faculty, students and alumni.
He said despite the setbacks, enough financing had finally been secured to begin the design and construction process in earnest.
“Some of you have been wondering where we’ve been,” Bienen said. “We are going ahead with a new building for the School of Music.”
As applause filled the hall, Bienen joked, “I know very well that all the clapping is for the building and not for me.”
Bienen said the MAB would continue to see use after the School of Music moved out.
“It’s a great building and we’ll keep it,” Bienen said.
When Montgomery returned to the rostrum, she moved to specifics, saying that the new building would cost about $90 million and be completed by spring of 2012. The building will include classrooms, faculty offices, teaching studios and practice rooms, choral and opera rehearsal rooms and a 400-seat recital hall. The last amenity drew another round of applause.
Montgomery said the building’s location, which places most School of Music facilities within easy walking distance of each other, was also important.
“It has been said that facilities facilitate,” Montgomery said. “This facility will facilitate communication between our students and faculty. It will complete the Arts Circle and will increase communication between the theater, dance, arts and music programs.”
Before leaving the stage, she said the building was something that had been in near-constant discussion at the school since its first dean, Peter Lutkin, first raised the topic in 1931.
“Like my predecessors, I have worked hard for this,” Montgomery said. “I am proud that it is under my term it will be brought to fruition.”
Afterward in the lobby, students and faculty also expressed their excitement about the new building’s announced features and their frustration at the current building’s shortcomings.
Supervisor of Keyboard Maintenance Ken Eschete said he was happy with the new building, which will make his job much easier.
MAB requires teams of men to move the pianos up and down stairs, whereas the new building will have elevators, he said.
He also noted that the MAB is not climate-controlled and that the pianos housed there need to be tuned twice as frequently as those housed in Regenstein Hall.
“The more sophisticated pianos are currently in the building that has no temperature or humidity control,” Eschete said. “The result for our piano players and conductors is going to be instruments that are much better in tune.”
David Cobek, a doctoral student in conducting, said that while he would likely never use the building, he was excited for the announcement nonetheless.
“I think that it’s important that the entire community is together in one location,” Cobek said. “Right now the Music Administration Building and Regenstein and Pick-Staiger are across the campus from each other, and it fractures our daily lives.”
Frank Feger, a Music senior who plays euphonium in the brass ensemble, said that he was similarly pleased.
“It’s about time we have facilities that complement the amazing students and faculty that we have,” Feger said.
