School of music

School Notes: School of Music
March/April 2017

José García-Léon | http://music.yale.edu

New center for music at Yale

The new Adams Center for Musical Arts opened in January and has since been in use by School of Music students and by Yale College students who participate in the university’s undergraduate ensembles. Named for Stephen ’59 and Denise Adams in recognition of their continued generosity and support of the Yale School of Music, the $57.1 million Adams Center was made possible primarily through gifts from Yale alumni. The complex connects a newly renovated Hendrie Hall to the previously renovated Leigh Hall by way of a new structure that is anchored by a dedicated orchestra rehearsal room and an atrium in which students from the School of Music and Yale College can gather.

In addition to carefully engineered acoustics incorporated throughout the complex, the Adams Center is equipped with $1.2 million in advanced audio- and video-recording systems and distance-learning technology. While the center features entirely new facilities, it also boasts magnificently reimagined spaces in Hendrie Hall, including those that are home to Yale’s undergraduate ensembles—the Yale Glee Club and Yale Bands—and, from YSM, the Yale Opera and Yale Percussion Group.

“The opening of the Adams Center is a defining moment for the Yale School of Music, the Yale College ensembles that have resided for decades in Hendrie Hall, and the university’s entire, extraordinary music community,” YSM dean Robert Blocker said. “From the traditional spaces to the newest digital frontiers located in the Adams Center for Musical Arts, the rich legacy of music at Yale will be sustained and shared throughout the world.”

Alumni nominated for Grammys

Yale School of Music faculty composer Christopher Theofanidis’s ’97MusAD Bassoon Concerto was nominated for a 2017 Grammy Award in the Best Contemporary Classical Composition category. The piece was recorded by bassoonist Martin Kuuskmann ’95CertPF and the Northwest Sinfonia, under the direction of Barry Jekowsky. Other Yale School of Music alumni who were nominated for 2017 Grammy Awards include composer Michael Daugherty ’87MusAD, clarinetist Joaquin Valdepenas ’80MusM, and percussionist David Skidmore ’08MusM.

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