Oregon Bach Festival Breaks Ground for New Multi-Purpose Home on the University of Oregon Campus

Matthew Halls Artistic Director Janelle McCoy Executive Director MEDIA RELEASE CONTACT Josh Gren, Director of Marketing & Communications 458-210-6631 or [email protected] Edward McNally, Above the Fold Arts PR 404-281-6419 or [email protected] Oregon Bach Festival Breaks Ground for New Multi-Purpose Home on the University of Oregon Campus EUGENE, OR – A new artistic director in 2014. A new executive director earlier this year. Now, just six days before the opening night concert of its highly anticipated 47th season, the internationally acclaimed Oregon Bach Festival (OBF) will break ground on their new permanent home on the University of Oregon campus. The 10,000 square foot, 2-story building, designed by Portland-based Hacker Architects, will provide space for Festival program rehearsals, recitals, lectures, and receptions. The space will house OBF’s administrative offices and support space and give OBF a prominent presence on campus and in the city. The multi-purpose facility, which is scheduled to open in June 2017, will face 18th Avenue adjacent to the University’s School of Music and Dance (SOMD). OBF staff, board members and major donors will join more than fifty University and Eugene community leaders and elected officials for a VIP luncheon and groundbreaking at 12:30 pm, Friday, June 17. The proposed name, Berwick Hall, is in honor of UO alumni Phyllis and Andrew Berwick, whose $6.5 million gift to OBF funded the largest part of the $8.7 million budget for the building’s design and construction. In addition to accommodating OBF’s administrative offices, the building will be a gathering place for OBF’s community programming and for other arts organizations on campus. The 2,000 square foot, rehearsal room will be OBF’s dedicated rehearsal space able to host events and receptions for 240 guests or seated audiences of up to 120. It will have also specially- designed acoustics tuned for OBF’s repertoire. According to Corey Martin, Hacker Architects principal and design team lead for the project, “The project represents an opportunity for music and architecture to impact each other in a profound way and all aspects of the design, from the forms to the materials, have been considered from the point of view that the building itself should be perceived as an instrument.” The Rehearsal Room will be day-lit via skylights and a window framing an intimate courtyard garden, while a larger outdoor courtyard will accommodate OBF events and celebrations. The building will be naturally lit and energy efficient. “Thanks to the very generous and visionary support of Phyllis and Andrew Berwick, our new home will be much more than an attractive and useful building,” says OBF Executive Director Janelle McCoy. “As a facility, it will house our administrative and rehearsal functions and enable us to host selected smaller performances. But more importantly, this facility will serve as a point of entry to the arts. Being next to the School of Music and Dance will transform 18th Avenue into an artistic gateway to all sorts of performances and arts programming on the UO campus. We’ll also be across from Central Lutheran Church, another important site for music concerts. By linking two performance spaces, our new space will form an arts corridor, further connecting the University to the community, which is something OBF has always taken great pride in.” McCoy added, “Our new home will make OBF a central hub for Festival activities. We look forward to being a vital gathering place throughout the year bringing music lovers from all over Eugene to events presented by us and a range of University groups and programs.” The 2016 Oregon Bach Festival Over the course of 18 days this summer, OBF is expected to attract more than 15,000 music lovers of all ages from across the US and overseas. OBF 2016 will feature more than 400 musicians and singers in 50 concerts, lectures, community events, and world class training workshops at four locations in downtown Eugene, including The Hult Center for the Performing Arts and Beall Concert Hall. Prices for ticketed concerts and events range from $20 to $65 and several creative ticket discount packages are available for almost all concerts. More than a dozen events are available free to the public. Tickets for all OBF events are available at http://oregonbachfestival.com/tickets, or by phone by calling 541-682-5000. Tickets can also be purchased at the Hult Center Box Office, located at West 7th Ave. and Willamette St. in Eugene. This year’s Festival highlights include Johann Sebastian Bach’s sublime Mass in B Minor presented on period instruments, a world premiere requiem by Sir James MacMillan, widely considered as one of the world’s most successful composers, a high energy concert by rising stars, Punch Brothers, and composer/pianist Jeffrey Kahane performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and conducting Gabriel’s Guide to the 48 States. In addition to Kahane, several audience favorites from past years are returning to OBF stages this season, including acclaimed organist Paul Jacobs, young tenor sensation Nicholas Phan, and brilliant violinist Monica Huggett. Rachel Podger, one of the world’s most accomplished violin interpreters of the Baroque and Classical periods, will make her OBF debut. On Sunday, July 10, Oregon Bach Festival will present a truly grand finale concert event in Silva Concert Hall when more than 230 orchestra members, soloists, and choral singers fill the stage for Brahms’ epic Ein deutsches Requiem. Berwick Academy, a program of OBF, was established in 2014 through a $7.5 million gift from Phyllis and Andrew Berwick, consists of up to 35 professional musicians and ten internationally respected tutors all led by Matthew Halls, OBF’s artistic director, who is based in the UK. It is one of the few educational performance opportunities in the US that exclusively feature period performance. Hacker Architects Hacker Architects is a studio of 50+ united by a desire to create spaces that enrich the world – spaces that make people feel more connected to the landscape, each other and ourselves. Hacker’s devotion to craft and their 30+ year history of environmentally progressive design, their expressive use of materials and natural light – and above all, their reputation for seeking clarity and meaning in every aspect of the work – has earned them international, national, and regional design awards, including top prizes in three national design competitions, and publication internationally. In 2015, Hacker was ranked the #15 firm in the nation by ARCHITECT magazine, and was named the AIA’s Northwest & Pacific Region Firm of the Year in 2013 “We believe that architecture is best when it’s an honest expression of the people and institutions it serves, when it interacts dynamically with its surroundings, and makes humble use of the earth’s resources. More than a craft or practice, we see architecture as a calling to create beauty and serve humanity, requiring from each of us our deepest listening, questioning, curiosity and engagement.” – Thomas Hacker, Founder and Principal Notes on the materials and acoustical design of the rehearsal room in OBF’s new facility: Interior white oak walls in the Rehearsal Room are subtly curved to reflect the form of an instrument and the composition of the exterior uses rhythmical concepts in its design. The material palette and color selections are simple and natural in theme. Exterior materials will include bricks carefully selected in color, blend and texture to compliment the adjacent SOMD buildings, while the Rehearsal Room is differentiated with a wood panel system. The Rehearsal Room captures a large volume (40’ x 48’ x 33’+) to prevent sound building up to uncomfortably loud levels and to allow music to linger with a moderately long reverberation time. Room surfaces are shaped to sustain sound while avoiding flutter (high frequency trapped between parallel surfaces) and preventing an excessive buildup of sound in the lower 7’ of the room, where the musicians and listeners will be. Some additional texturing of the walls provides more random scattering of sound, to further soften harshness. A simple, modestly curved ceiling provides clean communication within an ensemble while preventing fluttery buildup between the floor and ceiling. Clerestory and narrow windows cut into some of the corners of the room provide additional levels of diffusion. A suite of fixed and adjustable acoustic absorption will support events with a range of loudness, and for uses where speech clarity is important. Sound isolation and noise vibration control are also important aspects of the room design. The separation of the rehearsal room from the remainder of the building, the provision of a vestibule, and the inclusion of heavy walls and high performance windows will support these needs. The location and detailed design of the building’s mechanical systems will also mitigate their noise. # # # Oregon Bach Festival Oregon Bach Festival (OBF) has presented the masterworks of J.S. Bach to audiences in Eugene, Portland, and throughout the State of Oregon for nearly five decades. The annual event began as a collaboration between German Conductor and Organist, Helmuth Rilling and former Associate Dean of the University of Oregon School Of Music, Royce Saltzman. OBF is now an international festival of worldwide repute, led by Maestro Matthew Halls. In addition to traditional choral-orchestral masterworks, the festival also presents internationally renowned guest artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Midori, Pink Martini and Joshua Bell, and offers educational opportunities, children and family programing, and free community events. Matthew Halls, Artistic Director The word “versatile” is an apt description for British conductor Matthew Halls. He first came to prominence as a keyboard player and early music conductor, but Halls is now better known for his dynamic and intelligent work with major symphony orchestras and opera companies, and for his probing and vibrant interpretations of music of all periods.

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