New home, new sound

School of music opens state-of-the-art concert hall with unique acoustics

Just like its campus, Liberty University’s school of music continues to expand and build upon what already exists. The freshly completed concert hall in the new Center for Music and the Worship Arts signifies just that.

The hall, which hosted its inaugural event Oct. 25, offers the musicians and performers a room with a much higher quality than the acoustically-challenged lecture halls and classrooms which had housed them in the past.

Dr. Vernon Whaley, the dean of the school of music, had seen the need for a better performance area for more than 20 years, but the lack of space and finances barred the school from constructing one. Now, as the construction project has been completed, Whaley realized just how well the concert hall has developed.

“I think it’s much better, bigger and nicer than anyone ever expected, and it’s also acoustically richer than anyone could have hoped,” Whaley said. “It will give our school of music an opportunity to grow and to perform our large and small groups.”

With a seating capacity of about 1,600 and state-of-the-art construction, the concert hall is expected to set Liberty’s school of music apart from the music programs of other universities.

According to Whaley, the concert hall features a unique design which allows the room to physically change its dimensions to suit the type of music being played.

“At the push of a button, the entire room can change acoustically and then allows us to have a wonderful space for producing wonderful music that’s both acoustic and electronic,” Whaley said. “There’s not really any other place like that in the country that’s made specifically for that purpose.”

Receiving requests from the Roanoke and Richmond symphony orchestras, Whaley said he is willing to offer it as a place to contribute to the arts in Lynchburg and the south central Virginia area. The very first event held in the concert hall was a performance by the Lynchburg Symphony Orchestra, as it played various pieces and concluded with a joint performance with the Liberty University Symphony Orchestra, members of seven different choir groups from Liberty, and a trio of faculty soloists.

The conductor of the Lynchburg Symphony Orchestra, Dr. Christopher Swanson, was blown away by both the crowd and the facility itself, according to his interview with the Liberty University News Service.

“I think that this hall is going to change the landscape of the city in a lot of ways,” Swanson said. “You are going to have ensembles (and) soloists from all over the world who are going to want to get in on this hall.”

Sophomore Paul Kaufmann, a film scoring major, recognized these same qualities in the concert hall and the new music building as a whole. As a member of the audience for the inaugural event and a student in the new classrooms, Kaufmann said he has seen a lot of potential for himself and his classmates’ futures.

“The thing I love most about the concert hall is probably its acoustics, but also its grand and impressive atmosphere,” Kauffmann said. “I also think it will open up many opportunities for students to enter the professional world of music, and even more so when the recording studio is finished.”

Even though the performance area is in the building designated for the school of music, Whaley made it clear that it is a space open for every member of Liberty’s community and the surrounding area to use and enjoy.

As it continues to be used, Whaley said he thinks the new concert hall will become a quality representation of Liberty’s music programs.

“It will have a contribution to the entire life of the university,” Whaley said. “It’s a beautiful facility, and it’s going to give us a wonderful showpiece that we can certainly show other universities and schools and people around the world of what’s going on here at Liberty University.”

Klinker is a feature reporter.