UC Davis Music Performance Building and Recital Hall
Building a Cultural Legacy
In 2011, the curtain will rise on a major performing arts facility at UC Davis—the UC Davis Music Performance Building and Recital Hall. A 400-seat state-of-the-art building designed for vocal and ensemble performance, the new hall will be one of the most active venues in the Sacramento metropolitan area, hosting more than 100 concerts annually.
The Recital Hall will be home to events presented by both the Department of Music and the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. The department will present music festivals, artists-in-residence events, the popular free noon concerts, and performances by student and professional resident ensembles and choruses, as well master classes, rehearsals, and courses, such as the large musicappreciation course known as Music 10. Mondavi Center will take advantage of the hall's superior acoustics and mid-size seating capacity for performances that now occur in the smaller Studio Theater—performances that will be more acoustically rich and, from a production standpoint, more fitting in the Recital Hall. In all, the hall will enable far more collaborations among the Department of Music, Mondavi Center, and other programs, opening up fresh possibilities for chamber festivals and other new programming.
The Recital Hall is the realization of a long-held campus dream; it has been the vision of Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef since he announced his plan for campus performing arts facilities in his 1994 inaugural address. That plan, which included the Mondavi Center, called also for an intimate concert hall to provide a much-needed venue for chamber, vocal, and solo music recitals and to address the expansive growth and strength of the Department of Music, now one of the most active and vigorous academic programs at
UC Davis.
Since the construction of the current Music Building in 1966, the number of undergraduate majors in the music department has increased from 11 to 150, and the number of faculty members from 6 to 39. To meet the needs of this burgeoning population of students and scholars, the hall will feature four new practice rooms, recording controls, a music studio, artist and audience amenities, production and teaching offices, and the Artists Courtyard, an outdoor site for lectures, informal performances, and artist receptions.
The Recital Hall’s location, adjacent to the present Music Building at the edge of the downtown core area, will be strategically convenient, with parking and bike access located at the corner of Third and A Streets. In addition, the music department is coordinating with the campus Arboretum Gateways Project, a program to upgrade the Arboretum and develop educational sectors within, with the new Recital Hall anchoring the planned Arts Sector of the Arboretum.
Private gifts are needed to ensure that the Recital Hall will be an unparalleled performance venue for the campus and the community. Subject to voter approval, state bond funding is scheduled to provide approximately 75% of the $21.6 million needed for construction. The campus has set a fundraising goal to raise additional monies from private support: $5.5 million for critical enhancements and at least $1 million for endowments and current funds to support production costs, performance recordings, visiting artists, outreach, patron services, marketing, and operations. For more information about gift opportunities, please contact the Department of Music.