May the Schwartz be with you
Emory unveils its new performance facility as the center of its expanding arts village
Before it even opened, Emory University's Donna and Marvin Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts seemed to precociously announce itself as a "cultural institution." The building's conspicuous presence at the corner of North Decatur and Clifton roads serves as its calling card: a modern expression of classic elegance, complete with gabled roofs, glass, stucco and Portuguese limestone details; an expanse of windows and enclosed portico to allow natural light, while buffering the performances from the sounds of the street. Distinctive while not clashing with the character of nearby Emory buildings, the Schwartz Center stands as an impressive addition to this boom-town of a campus.
As it formally opens for business this week, the time has come to test whether the center will live up to its advance billing as an important new locus on Emory's — and Atlanta's — cultural landscape.
"The campus has taken on more of an arts persona," says Steven Everett, chairman of Emory's music department. Until now, the music department was hidden at the far southeast end of campus, in the Burlington Road Building, largely invisible to passersby and prospective students. The Schwartz Center's prominent location makes it clear that the arts are a viable part of Emory's life. "A symbolic statement," Everett says, but clearly one with far-reaching implications for the school and surrounding community.
A Feb. 1 opening ceremony, featuring student performances, kicks off a week of events designed to introduce the Schwartz Center to the public. Performances by Emory alumni and notable Atlanta musicians, as well as work by local composers, are highlighted. The week of events, many of them free but requiring reservations, launches the four-month Schwartz Center Opening Festival. (See sidebar for details.)
Among the Schwartz Center's facilities, Emerson Hall, with over 800 seats and excellent acoustics, has attracted the most public attention so far. That's not surprising, given the city's history.
For a long time, Atlanta suffered a severe shortage of small to medium "music-friendly" halls. Georgia State University built a 400-seat recital hall specifically designed for music back in 1970, but because of its location and other issues, it has never been a high-profile venue for audiences beyond the university. And the notion of a music-specific venue was not to be replicated soon. Common wisdom of the day favored the construction of "multiuse" halls, most often large, where supposedly all performing arts could share one stage. Music, however, has different acoustical needs than those for speech, and it usually got shortchanged in the package deal. To alleviate the shortcomings, music performances had to make do with inadequate patchworks of temporary acoustical shells and other portable devices. Still, a large part of the sound disappeared into the flies and wings rather than being delivered to the audience. It was a common battle fought, and usually lost, by musicians in those days.
Then, in 1991, the 400-seat Spivey Hall opened its doors at Clayton College & State University, and it rocked the consciousness of Atlanta's arts world by establishing for itself an international reputation as a world-class venue specifically for music — and in the "unfashionable" southern suburbs, no less. The world noticed. And suddenly, excellent acoustics not only entered into the Atlanta arts community's radar, it became somewhat an enviable status symbol. It was not isolated to Atlanta — the '90s saw renovations to many large North American halls that suffered from the architectural myopia of several decades in the design of performance spaces and churches.
In Atlanta, the downtown Rialto Center re-opened in 1996 under the auspices of Georgia State as an example of a post-Spivey-era hall. Though a multiuse facility, it's atypical in that its designed allowed the stage to be configured for theater or concert, with excellent acoustics for each specific intent.
In December preview concerts, Schwartz's Emerson Hall demonstrated first-class acoustics. It has about the same seating capacity as the Rialto, but differs markedly in that it is a dedicated music hall in the European manner, with audience seats behind a stage that can alternatively be used as a choral balcony. Its acoustics can be tuned quickly and with precision — to suit different ensembles, musical styles or even individual musical selections — a feature it has in common with Spivey Hall.
None of which is to say Atlanta is now overrun with fine spaces for music. And Emerson Hall probably won't fill any void in performance spaces available for rental. It will be too busy — not only with the presentation of guest artists and international performers in the esteemed Flora Glenn Candler Series of concerts, but also with over 100 concerts a year presented by the Emory music department. Factor in the onstage rehearsals necessary for all of those concerts, and the ensembles that will regularly rehearse in the hall, and the result is a busy schedule.
With the majority of concerts moved to the Schwartz Center, the burden on the nearby Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church, which had been the site of many university-sponsored performances, will be reduced. But because Glenn is much larger than Emerson Hall (and it is, after all, a church), programs such as the annual Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols will continue to take place there. Likewise, congestion will be relieved at the Burlington Road building and its attached Performing Arts Studio. The studio will continue to be used by the music program, but its programming could be directed toward edgier and more intimate events.
"A number of things were stepping stones, and the Burlington Road building was a major one," says Rosemary Magee, senior associate dean for Emory College and the executive director of the Arts Center project. "What we were out to create was an arts village concept, with arts happening in a variety of places, but including a centerpiece for it so we could define a presence for the arts at Emory."
This included having multiple spaces within the new center. Each is suitable for a different arts discipline and its specific needs and technical requirements. But multidisciplinary interaction is encouraged among them. To this end, there's far more to Schwartz than Emerson Hall. The Center also includes both a dance studio and a theater lab, each with 135 seats on the main level and observation rooms above (in the manner of surgical rooms at medical schools, where students can study real-time work without interfering). There is a space devoted to theatrical design, and another for costume design. And a dedicated rehearsal hall, intended to emulate the acoustical experience of the Emerson stage, allows for simultaneous rehearsals of large ensembles without sonic interference.
In particular, the dance studio could have a significant impact on the state of Atlanta's modern dance community. Of all the performing arts, modern dance has struggled the most with its public presence, despite a few notable professionals and some valiant efforts. Like music, it has a long history of difficulty finding adequate venues for public presentation, and even more difficulty establishing a truly significant Atlanta audience. The Schwartz Center could be a common ground where the top-level facilities and creativity come together in a way that ignites public interest.
"I think it will really establish Emory as a center for certain types of activities, certain kinds of dance, specifically modern. Not everything," says Magee. With the Schwartz Center open, Emory will likely double the total annual number of its dance presentations.
While most theatrical productions will continue to be staged at the Munroe Theater in Dobbs University Center, Schwartz's Laboratory Theater will be a hotbed of activity for readings, works in progress and experimentation.
While different disciplines have spaces devoted to their particular needs, Magee emphasizes the interdisciplinary intents of the Center and Emory's overall mission. "Because that's really life, isn't it? Most of us don't just do, or know, or understand only one thing," she says. "There will always be tensions between disciplines, even within a department. And it actually can become an energizing and creative tension."
No doubt, creativity often arises out of the sheer opportunity to rub shoulders with other artists, particularly those from different backgrounds. And such close encounters are undoubtedly facilitated when there is a focal point.
"Think of this as a sort of town hall," Magee says of the Schwartz Center. "Many important things will happen outside the town hall. But if you didn't have the town hall at all, then you would lose something critical."
music@creativeloafing.com
As it formally opens for business this week, the time has come to test whether the center will live up to its advance billing as an important new locus on Emory's — and Atlanta's — cultural landscape.
"The campus has taken on more of an arts persona," says Steven Everett, chairman of Emory's music department. Until now, the music department was hidden at the far southeast end of campus, in the Burlington Road Building, largely invisible to passersby and prospective students. The Schwartz Center's prominent location makes it clear that the arts are a viable part of Emory's life. "A symbolic statement," Everett says, but clearly one with far-reaching implications for the school and surrounding community.
A Feb. 1 opening ceremony, featuring student performances, kicks off a week of events designed to introduce the Schwartz Center to the public. Performances by Emory alumni and notable Atlanta musicians, as well as work by local composers, are highlighted. The week of events, many of them free but requiring reservations, launches the four-month Schwartz Center Opening Festival. (See sidebar for details.)
Among the Schwartz Center's facilities, Emerson Hall, with over 800 seats and excellent acoustics, has attracted the most public attention so far. That's not surprising, given the city's history.
For a long time, Atlanta suffered a severe shortage of small to medium "music-friendly" halls. Georgia State University built a 400-seat recital hall specifically designed for music back in 1970, but because of its location and other issues, it has never been a high-profile venue for audiences beyond the university. And the notion of a music-specific venue was not to be replicated soon. Common wisdom of the day favored the construction of "multiuse" halls, most often large, where supposedly all performing arts could share one stage. Music, however, has different acoustical needs than those for speech, and it usually got shortchanged in the package deal. To alleviate the shortcomings, music performances had to make do with inadequate patchworks of temporary acoustical shells and other portable devices. Still, a large part of the sound disappeared into the flies and wings rather than being delivered to the audience. It was a common battle fought, and usually lost, by musicians in those days.
Then, in 1991, the 400-seat Spivey Hall opened its doors at Clayton College & State University, and it rocked the consciousness of Atlanta's arts world by establishing for itself an international reputation as a world-class venue specifically for music — and in the "unfashionable" southern suburbs, no less. The world noticed. And suddenly, excellent acoustics not only entered into the Atlanta arts community's radar, it became somewhat an enviable status symbol. It was not isolated to Atlanta — the '90s saw renovations to many large North American halls that suffered from the architectural myopia of several decades in the design of performance spaces and churches.
In Atlanta, the downtown Rialto Center re-opened in 1996 under the auspices of Georgia State as an example of a post-Spivey-era hall. Though a multiuse facility, it's atypical in that its designed allowed the stage to be configured for theater or concert, with excellent acoustics for each specific intent.
In December preview concerts, Schwartz's Emerson Hall demonstrated first-class acoustics. It has about the same seating capacity as the Rialto, but differs markedly in that it is a dedicated music hall in the European manner, with audience seats behind a stage that can alternatively be used as a choral balcony. Its acoustics can be tuned quickly and with precision — to suit different ensembles, musical styles or even individual musical selections — a feature it has in common with Spivey Hall.
None of which is to say Atlanta is now overrun with fine spaces for music. And Emerson Hall probably won't fill any void in performance spaces available for rental. It will be too busy — not only with the presentation of guest artists and international performers in the esteemed Flora Glenn Candler Series of concerts, but also with over 100 concerts a year presented by the Emory music department. Factor in the onstage rehearsals necessary for all of those concerts, and the ensembles that will regularly rehearse in the hall, and the result is a busy schedule.
With the majority of concerts moved to the Schwartz Center, the burden on the nearby Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church, which had been the site of many university-sponsored performances, will be reduced. But because Glenn is much larger than Emerson Hall (and it is, after all, a church), programs such as the annual Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols will continue to take place there. Likewise, congestion will be relieved at the Burlington Road building and its attached Performing Arts Studio. The studio will continue to be used by the music program, but its programming could be directed toward edgier and more intimate events.
"A number of things were stepping stones, and the Burlington Road building was a major one," says Rosemary Magee, senior associate dean for Emory College and the executive director of the Arts Center project. "What we were out to create was an arts village concept, with arts happening in a variety of places, but including a centerpiece for it so we could define a presence for the arts at Emory."
This included having multiple spaces within the new center. Each is suitable for a different arts discipline and its specific needs and technical requirements. But multidisciplinary interaction is encouraged among them. To this end, there's far more to Schwartz than Emerson Hall. The Center also includes both a dance studio and a theater lab, each with 135 seats on the main level and observation rooms above (in the manner of surgical rooms at medical schools, where students can study real-time work without interfering). There is a space devoted to theatrical design, and another for costume design. And a dedicated rehearsal hall, intended to emulate the acoustical experience of the Emerson stage, allows for simultaneous rehearsals of large ensembles without sonic interference.
In particular, the dance studio could have a significant impact on the state of Atlanta's modern dance community. Of all the performing arts, modern dance has struggled the most with its public presence, despite a few notable professionals and some valiant efforts. Like music, it has a long history of difficulty finding adequate venues for public presentation, and even more difficulty establishing a truly significant Atlanta audience. The Schwartz Center could be a common ground where the top-level facilities and creativity come together in a way that ignites public interest.
"I think it will really establish Emory as a center for certain types of activities, certain kinds of dance, specifically modern. Not everything," says Magee. With the Schwartz Center open, Emory will likely double the total annual number of its dance presentations.
While most theatrical productions will continue to be staged at the Munroe Theater in Dobbs University Center, Schwartz's Laboratory Theater will be a hotbed of activity for readings, works in progress and experimentation.
While different disciplines have spaces devoted to their particular needs, Magee emphasizes the interdisciplinary intents of the Center and Emory's overall mission. "Because that's really life, isn't it? Most of us don't just do, or know, or understand only one thing," she says. "There will always be tensions between disciplines, even within a department. And it actually can become an energizing and creative tension."
No doubt, creativity often arises out of the sheer opportunity to rub shoulders with other artists, particularly those from different backgrounds. And such close encounters are undoubtedly facilitated when there is a focal point.
"Think of this as a sort of town hall," Magee says of the Schwartz Center. "Many important things will happen outside the town hall. But if you didn't have the town hall at all, then you would lose something critical."
music@creativeloafing.com