Related Article
Dustup in Sonoma County
February 23, 2010
Music Center at Sonoma State Still A-Greening
February 13, 2010
A $12 million gift from philanthropists Joan and Sanford Weill, announced today, may ensure completion of Sonoma State University's Green Music Center by next fall.
The 105,435-square-foot project combines several facilities with a 1,400-seat concert hall — to be named for the Weills — with a rear wall that can be opened to lawn seating for an audience of 3,000. On the east side of the building, a planned Weill Commons should accommodate up to 10,000.
A visit last year to the partially completed hall showed an elegant, beautiful, and acoustically promising facility. Ambitious claims from the university — "... designed to replicate the intimacy and acoustics of Vienna's Musikverein and Symphony Hall in Boston" — are supported, if not proven in advance, by the high pedigree of the builders: architect William Rawn and acoustician Lawrence Kirkegaard.
Rawn, an award winner some 80 times over, has been called "modern and contemporary, but not Frank Gehry off-the-wall." Among his work: the Seiji Ozawa Hall at the Tanglewood Music Festival, and W Hotel in Boston's theater district.
Rawn has partnered with Kirkegaard Associates at Tanglewood, the acoustician also responsible for the new San Francisco Conservatory of Music; Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall; Royal Festival Hall at South Bank, London; and the Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport, Massachusetts.
Also today, Robert Cole, who led UC Berkeley's Cal Performances for 23 years, was appointed artistic consultant. He will work with Green Music Center Artistic Director Jeff Langley, director of SSU's School of Performing Arts.
This $120 million project — budgeted at $37 million in its original, more modest form — began with major donations from Donald and Maureen Green in 1996-1997, and the capital campaign opened in 1999. The project went out to bid in 2003 and 2004, and construction began in 2006. The project has seen many challenges and setbacks over the years, but its original champion, Sonoma State University President Ruben Armiñana, is firm in his prediction of a 2012 inaugural concert.
Santa Rosa Symphony will be the resident orchestra, and notable guest artists are expected to perform. Original plans for San Francisco Symphony "run-out" performances might have been complicated, meanwhile, by the SFS centennial celebrations.
The Weills, part-time Sonoma residents, say they "care deeply about the communities we live and work in." He is former CEO and chairman of Citigroup Inc., which reported a net loss of $1.6 billion in 2009, and received a $45 billion federal bailout. Weill has made major contributions to Cornell's medical school, now known as the Weill Cornell Medical College. Currently, he is board chair of Carnegie Hall and chair of the National Academy Foundation. Joan Weill has served for the past 10 years as board chair of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Foundation.
"When we first toured the Green Music Center," say the Weills, "we were immediately inspired by the beauty, the acoustics, and the wonderful potential for this spectacular arts venue. We are passionate about education, music, and the arts and we are firm believers that they can help bridge cultural divides that exist throughout the world.
"For us, philanthropy is much more than just writing a check. It is donating our time, energy, and knowledge to the causes we are passionate about."
Weill said the Green Music Center "could be a transformative project, not just for the campus but for the entire Northern California community, and we look forward with great anticipation to the exciting future of this world-class destination."
Last October, the Weills acquired the $31 million Shanel Estate as their local residence, in the biggest such sale in Sonoma's history. The Tuscan-inspired mansion is the work of San Francisco architect Sandy Walker.