Prebys Concert Hall (Courtesy photo)
When I was a college music student, the pianos were often out of tune, practice rooms were in short supply and even when you got one, the sound proofing was so inadequate that you could barely hear what you were playing.
But that’s not the case at UCSD.
The lucky music students and faculty have the new, $53 million Conrad Prebys Music Center, the site of a Free Open House (from 3 p.m. to 4:45 p.m.) and Opening Night Gala (7 p.m.) on May 8 and another open house (noon-4 p.m.) and Public Concert (8 p.m.) on May 9. Tickets/information: (858) 534-TIXS; Web site
Named for the generous, music-loving Point Loma developer, the music center is nothing short of astonishing. I know. I was fortunate enough to receive a tour from music department chair Rand Steiger and architect Mark Reddington of Seattle-based LMN Architects.
They even let me try out the concert grand in 400-seat Prebys Concert Hall, the heart of the project designed with famed acoustician Cyril Harris. All it took were a few arpeggios and the opening chords of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 to realize that the hall’s elegantly asymmetrical design enhances the sound quality, giving it warmth and immediacy.
“It’s a spectacular hall,” said Steiger, praising the acoustics for their combination of “clarity and beautiful reverberation.”
Having been a UCSD faculty member since 1987, Steiger appreciates the contrast between the music department’s new digs and bunker-like Mandeville Center, adjacent to Mandeville Auditorium. If Mandeville was a drab symphony in cement, the Prebys Music Center is a futuristic oratorio full of surprises.
The orchestra rehearsal room contains composite board panels mounted at different angles to effectively scatter the sound. The 150-seat recital hall includes surround sound and a video projector while the 150-seat experimental performance space has seats that can move into the back wall, creating an open floor, and “virtual acoustics” that evoke everything from a cathedral to a concert hall.
Then there are the recording studios, which contain an array of high-tech equipment. And yes, the approximately 30 practice rooms have the necessary sound proofing.
“I used to be embarrassed to show colleagues the music department,” said Steiger, a UCSD faculty member since 1987. “Now it’s a great pleasure. I’m proud.”
Though cost considerations made it necessary to reduce the number of floors from four to three, the facility is already a haven to the many musicians who use it.
“It’s a living, breathing, active thing — no longer a construction project,” said Reddington with a smile.
Now Steiger is envisioning the next big project - a splendid concert hall with between 1,000 and 2,000 seats that would be built nearby.
That’s a distant dream,” he said.
Perhaps. But not an impossible one.
Valerie Scher is the SDNN Arts & Entertainment editor.
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