Rice to host groundbreaking for new music building Dec. 7

Rice University
Office of Public Affairs / News & Media Relations

MEDIA ADVISORY

David Ruth
713-348-6327
david@rice.edu

Amy McCaig
713-348-6777
amym@rice.edu

Rice to host groundbreaking for new music building Dec. 7

HOUSTON – (Dec. 4, 2017) – Rice University will hold a ceremonial groundbreaking Dec. 7 for a new music building that together with the Shepherd School of Music’s Alice Pratt Brown Hall and the adjoining plaza will form the Rice University Music and Performing Arts Center.

Rendering of east facade of new music building. Photo credit: Rice Shepherd School of Music.

Who:              Rice University.

What:             Ceremonial groundbreaking for a new music building that together with the Shepherd School of Music’s Alice Pratt Brown Hall and the adjoining plaza will form the Rice University Music and Performing Arts Center.

When:            2 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 7. 

Where:           Future site of the new building to the west of Alice Pratt Brown Hall, Rice University, 6100 Main St.

The 84,000-square-foot facility will house a three-tiered, 600-seat, European-style theater with an orchestra pit for 70 musicians. It will be the first theater with this particular configuration among U.S. universities and conservatories.

Designed by Allan Greenberg Architect LLC, an architectural firm with offices in New York City and Alexandria, Va., the structure will offer premium performance space for opera and chamber music, meet the growing need for rehearsal and practice space and provide a hallmark venue to attract and host high-profile speakers.

Collaborating with Allan Greenberg on the design of the building’s theater and orchestra pit were theater planning and design consultants Fisher Dachs Associates and acoustic consultants Threshold Acoustics. The new theater will feature a state-of-the-art “pin-drop” acoustic experience created by Threshold Acoustics.

The venue is slated to open in late 2020 with performances and public events.

Media interested in attending the groundbreaking should contact Amy McCaig, senior media relations specialist at Rice, at 713-348-6777 or amym@rice.edu.

For a map of Rice University’s campus, go to http://www.rice.edu/maps/maps.html.

-30-

This news release can be found online at http://news.rice.edu.

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.

Related materials:

Shepherd School of Music website: https://music.rice.edu/

Photo link: http://news.rice.edu/files/2017/12/East-facade_preview-2lrkma1.jpg

Photo credit: Shepherd School of Music.

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,879 undergraduates and 2,861 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for quality of life and for lots of race/class interaction and No. 2 for happiest students by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. To read “What they’re saying about Rice,” go to http://tinyurl.com/RiceUniversityoverview.

If you do not wish to receive news releases from Rice University, reply to this email and write “unsubscribe” in the subject line. Office of News and Media Relations – MS 300, Rice University, 6100 Main St., Houston, TX 77005