On Friday, Feb. 9, Washburn University broke ground on the Dr. James Hurd Recital Hall. It will be located on Washburn campus north of White Concert Hall and east of Rita Blitt Gallery and Sculpture Garden.
The recital hall will be named after James Hurd, Washburn graduate of 1967, who was the lead donor of the project. In total, the donors accumulated over $5 million to give to the new space.
“I’m excited. Washburn University is building a new recital hall and it will enhance students’ performance opportunities,” said Jean Marshall, adjunct for the music department.
This project has been something in the works for some time as discussed by Craig Treinen, associate professor chair of theater and music.
“It’s been several years now that we’ve worked on getting this completed,” Treinen said.
While White Concert Hall can be used for all music performances, it isn’t an ideal space for all types of performances.
“White Concert Hall is one of the best concert halls in the United States, but it’s not necessarily meant for chamber music, music with small ensembles or solo artists,” Marshall said.
The auditorium was made for larger audiences as it seats around 1,100 people. Therefore, for smaller performances, there is a lot of unused space. Treinen discusses how all the extra space affects the students.
“It can kind of be overwhelming. The performance is kind of lost, especially for the students,” Treinen said.
Having a smaller place for performances will allow White Concert Hall to become more available, and will allow students to have a stage for more relaxed gatherings such as recitals and chamber concerts.
“It’ll be more of a personal performance, which is what we’re looking for, for some event like that,” Treinen said.
The recital hall will be able to hold 175 seats and will have an area of about 9,100 square feet. The room will be one flat surface so that different performances can have various layouts if needed. The acoustics will be adjustable, and it will include a recording booth.
“[It will] be able to do recordings, livestream, zoom, educational programs with artists all around the world,” Treinen said. “We’re also planning on putting a chamber series in there where we bring artists from all over the world and have them do performances here.”
With the additional space, there will be more opportunities for local and regional music competitions to be held at Washburn. This will ultimately bring in more publicity and financial support for the music department.
“Larger ensembles, larger events, like wind ensemble orchestra concerts and stuff like that, will still remain in White Concert Hall. But our smaller events will move into the recital hall,” Treinen said.
Tentatively, the new recital hall is thought to be completed by the fall of 2025.
Edited by Jeremy Ford and Stuti Khadka
