1677 Fine Arts News
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Construction of the new Music Instruction Building began in the late summer of 2002 as the musicians in the Ball State School of Music watched in anticipation from the Hargreaves Music Building across Riverside Avenue. The hopes and dreams of a new facility were realized in August 2004, when the construction was completed and the music performance faculty began moving into their new home…. DEAN’S PERSPECTIVE The College of Fine Arts has enjoyed modern art of Hans Breder. Current prestigious artist series planned for the an exceptional year, with major highlights include Lustrous: A Celebration festive inaugural year. After two decades advancements being felt in all areas. of Art Glass designed by Frederick of distinguished service, the School of Following a national search, Carder, who was chief designer for Music celebrated the retirement of Doug the Department of Theatre and Dance Steuben Glass from 1903 to 1932. Amman with a gala performance of named Bill Jenkins department chair; The Department of Art received Thompson’s Testament of Freedom. hosted actress Lindsey Crouse grants that allowed students to visit the Clearly, the College of Fine Arts is (Places in the Heart, The Verdict) and Chicago Art Institute and the Cincinnati making significant progress, but we need choreographer Bill Evans for a series Museum of Art, expanding their your help in providing critical scholarship of master classes; produced a stellar knowledge and horizons, and to bring support for talented students and in season of events, including a superb in minority artists for exhibitions and securing vital resources for our curricular rendition of Our Town; held increasingly master classes. initiatives. Please consider lending your popular and successful showcases in The School of Music worked support. Find out how you can make a New York and Los Angeles; and bade to finalize plans for moving into the gift to the college on the back page of farewell in grand fashion to departmental stunning new Music Instruction Building, this newsletter. stalwart Gil Bloom, who retired after truly a dream come true. This marvelous 42 years of service. facility will house 24 studios, a 600-seat All the best, The Museum of Art welcomed concert hall, choral and instrumental Robert A. Kvam, Dean director Peter Blume, who orchestrated a rehearsal rooms, and a state-of-the-art College of Fine Arts series of stunning exhibits ranging from music technology wing. This first-class a fetching collection of kimonos to the facility opened this fall, with a MUSIC INSTRUCTION BUILDING MUSIC INSTRUCTION BUILDING MUSIC INSTRUCTION BUILDING MUSIC INSTRUCTION BUILDING MUSIC INSTRUCTION A DREAM REALIZED SURSA PERFORMANCE HALL The cornerstone of Ball State’s new room without any sound escaping from by Peter McAllister state-of-the-art Music Instruction Building one area to the other. The David and Mary Jane Sursa The facility is linked directly to the is the magnificent 600-seat Sursa The building’s instructional wing Performance Hall in Ball State’s new recording booth in back of the audience Performance Hall, named in honor of features the music technology complex, Music Instruction Building will be a area and to the recording facilities on benefactors David and Mary Jane Sursa. which may well be the premiere MT musical jewel for the entire community. the second-floor area, so musicians will Their generosity provided for the hall and facility in the country. This area has The musical experience for both be able to record concerts digitally, a splendid pipe organ to be installed in catapulted Ball State’s music technology musicians and audience members broadcast live to Indiana Public Radio, the near future. program to elite status. The facility is promises to be outstanding, record for delayed broadcast to Sursa Hall features acoustical fully wired to record performances in compliments of acoustics that can be television, and broadcast live to the tuning capabilities, allowing performers Sursa Hall and in the 11 new recording changed by moving large baffles along Internet. to adjust the sound qualities of the hall studios, enabling the School of Music the sides of the hall. The acoustics can A world-class pipe organ will to suit their individual preferences. The to professionally record students, be modified in less than a minute to be designed, built, and installed in hall is specifically designed to foster a faculty, and numerous small and large reflect sound or absorb sound, making Sursa Hall during the next year or two, close connection between performers ensembles, including band, jazz, choral, the listening experience more compliments of the Sursa family. and audiences. It is a marvelous blend and orchestral groups. appropriate for the kind of music and of first-rate acoustical design and Simply put, it is a stunning the size of ensemble performing. musical intimacy. physical space and a technological Sursa Hall The Music Instruction Building wonderland that will draw not only top will be used as a also houses two large rehearsal halls to students but also major performers who rehearsal hall, accommodate Ball State’s bands and wish to take advantage of the recording performance hall, choirs. The choral rehearsal hall is opportunities now available at Ball State. and recording hall. outfitted as a second performance space seating 150, complete with a small The Sursa stage and acoustical tuning capabilities Performance Hall similar to those in Sursa Hall. nearly finished Chamber music ensembles will rehearse in three large rehearsal rooms, Construction Credits one of which is equipped with digital The Music Instruction Building was designed by CSO Architects of Indianapolis, audio/video capability. Ball State with acoustician expertise by Roger Noppe (Purcell and Noppe). The building design students will use this technology to was done by Michael Dennis of MIT. During the final building phase, David Carroll participate in fully interactive master Associates of California was engaged for designing and implementing the audio classes given by artists who will teach wiring to best connect the recording studio areas to each other and to both the from similarly equipped rooms at other Choral Rehearsal Recital Hall and the Sursa Performance Hall. institutions. Conversely, Ball State faculty members will give remote digital master classes for other institutions without leaving the campus. Each room in the Music Enriching the Voice Area Instruction Building—from the practice by Craig Priebe rooms to Sursa Hall—is acoustically isolated. While a performance is taking The voice area of the Ball State School of Music will benefit accurate. This is critical for singers who, being inside place in Sursa Hall, the Ball State band from the new Music Instruction Building in many ways that their instrument, are unable to hear their voices as their can be rehearsing nearby in the band go beyond the obvious. audience does. The building will, of course, provide instruction, The Sursa Performance Hall will offer the opera rehearsal, and performance spaces. program a space similar in size and feel to that of many But even more importantly, it will be European opera houses. The pit accommodates an orchestral a premium performance facility due ensemble large enough for opera works intended for more to two acoustically excellent and intimate houses. Young voices also are likely to carry well in intimate performance venues. this space and will not need amplification. In addition, the These will help young singers feel new facility will enable the opera singers to have adequate comfortable by allowing the students’ rehearsal time in the space where they will perform. natural and unpushed voices to carry Music is most effective when performers and and communicate easily. audience members feel physically, acoustically, and The excellent acoustics and aesthetically at home in a performance hall. The Music the installed high-quality audiovisual Instruction Building will provide this opportunity. recording equipment will make self-assessment convenient and Choral Rehearsal Recital Hall 2 NEW CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES College of Fine Arts Dean Robert Kvam has enabled the Sursa Performance Hall to be inaugurated by top international recording and performing artists. Funded by Arts Alive! through the College of Fine Arts, this new chamber music series will present some of the most outstanding artists to the entire community. “In the past, we would not have been able to attract musicians like these to Muncie, but they are drawn here by the opportunity to perform in our state-of-the-art and acoustically dynamic hall,” Kvam said. “It’s the goal of the College of Fine Arts to have an annual series of world-class performers who bring their unique talents to the hall.” The inaugural concerts will begin at 7:30 P.M. on the following evenings: Instrumental Rehearsal Room September 22, 2004: Violinist Midori November 17, 2004: Pianist January 25, 2005: Tokyo String Quartet and Pianist Robert McDonald Krystian Zimerman Officially formed in 1969 at the Juilliard Midori is heralded as one of the world’s Zimerman was the last, and for some School of Music, this quartet traces its foremost violinists. She has played the time also the only, pianist to perform origins to the Toho School of Music in great concert halls of Europe, Asia, and under Leonard Bernstein. He also has Tokyo and today is regarded as one North America and has worked with worked closely with Herbert von Karajan of the world’s supreme chamber Claudio Abbado, Vladimir Ashkenazy, and has repeatedly performed with Kaja ensembles. The quartet is in residence Isaac Stern, Leonard Bernstein, and Danczowska, Kyung-Wha Chung, Gidon at the Yale School of Music and Yo-Yo Ma. McDonald has performed Kremer, and 40 other celebrities of the performs around the globe. Its landmark extensively throughout the United musical world. His concert tours take recordings have earned the Grand Prix States, Europe, Latin America, and the him to the musical centers of Europe, du Disque Montreux and seven Grammy Far East as a solo recitalist and partner Asia, and America, and he has won nominations.