Imagine a dark theater awash in computer-generated sounds coming from all sides while images of shapes in varying colors dance on screens suspended 40 feet above an audience.
This experience could become a reality in a new building that is planned to house student-made electronic music and music technology programs at the school of music.
If the school can raise funds fast enough, it will have the space to record and perform music made by students in the Intermedia Music Technology and Bachelor of Science in Music Technology programs.
Current building plans include an Intermedia Performance Hall and additional classroom and practice spaces to serve as a venue for the modern integration between art and sound performances, music school Dean Anne Dhu McLucas said.
The planned 3,600-square foot Intermedia Performance Hall will have video screens with multiple projections and movable seating and staging to accommodate the needs of each performance, she said.
“You can have the most innovative kind of interaction with other arts like video arts and dance,” McLucas said. “We want to leave it as flexible as possible.”
Graduate student John Villec said the new facility will enhance the programs and performances for the electronic genre of music. The new sound system is one of the possible features that excites Villec most.
“Most public address systems are designed for voices or speeches or rock ‘n’ roll,” Villec said. “They hurt your ears.”
The school of music plans to make the renovations through private donations and funds from the state. Senate Bill 5525, which Gov. John Kitzhaber signed into law Aug. 8, guarantees that if the school can raise half of the $15.2 million construction cost, the state will pay for the rest.
With only $700,000 raised, the performance hall is still in the conceptual stage, said Joan Gardner, the school’s development director. However, she added that the school is actively courting University donors to help raise the rest of its half, which it must have by June 2003 to receive matching funds from the state.
“The school of music has a tough road ahead, with athletics and the school of business competing for the same University donors,” Gardner said. “If we meet that, then we could be breaking ground about summer 2003. It’s going to be a daunting prospect to raise the money.”
She added that the school is searching for a donor to give between $1 million and $3 million to jump-start the campaign. Although the Paul Allen Foundation turned down the request, Gardner said the school plans to apply to other major donors, including Allen’s foundation again later, offering to name newly built wings and studios after the more generous givers.
Building more practice rooms, offices and classrooms will help combat a growing problem of overcrowding, McLucas said. With the lack of space, students are being forced to practice in whatever spaces they can find, and teachers are being forced to share offices that were once storage closets.
“We have GTFs that are sometimes packed 10 to an office,” she said. “Its ridiculous that they have to schedule themselves so closely.”
McLucas said an improved music school will be good for the state of Oregon in general.
“We supply some of the major musicians for this state and all over,” McLucas said, adding that about 40 percent of the people involved in the Grammy-winning Oregon Bach Festival were associated with the University.
Although the school will continue to use Beall Hall for traditional concerts, McLucas said the new facility’s focus on electronic music will also enhance educational ability.
“We are now in a new century and music has changed a lot, and the training for what you need to know in music has changed a lot,” she said. “We have a wonderful up-to-date computer lab and an electronic music lab, and they are all in facilities that are almost laughable, they are so cramped.”
State support for the new programs and facilities is growing.
“Emerging music forms require progressive education. The school of music’s new facility will provide opportunities for their students to reach new heights in music composition,” said U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Oregon, in a press release.
Intermedia technology master’s student Andrew Lane said that a modern music hall would attract students, performances and guest artists, which would all have a positive impact on the University.
“Having a facility like this puts us not only on the map, but puts us in as the leading facility in music technology,” he said.
Music Professor Jeffrey Stolet said the building would enhance both the school’s instructional ability and prestige.
“It enriches the public,” he said. “When they leave a performance, they’ve been taught something.”