performance facilities

Students in the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance have access to a variety of facilities, including performance venues, academic learning/practice spaces, as well as technology labs in order to gain hands-on experience.

School of Music, Theatre, and Dance students learn by doing, performing, practicing, producing, and much more. Learn more about the spaces where students grow below.

 

Performance Venues

York Performance Hall and Galleries

York Performance HallAnderson University dedicated the York Performance Hall and Galleries on Sunday, Sept. 23, 2012. The state-of-the-art 24,000 square-foot facility, with a cost of $5.5 million, adjoins the existing music wing of the Krannert Fine Arts building, bringing together classrooms, rehearsal rooms, and the new performance venue. The performance hall is designed to be a flexible performance space for many ensembles, solo student performances, and visiting artists.

The York Performance Hall and Galleries features orchestra space for 45 musicians, a choir loft for 75 voices, and an advanced acoustical design. The main floor of the facility seats 250 while the balcony space seats approximately 75. The width of the facility is appropriate for ensembles, and the ceiling height is set to develop sound reflections and a pleasant level of reverberation. Because some performances benefit from a less reverberant environment, the space includes retractable banners and curtains made of wool and velour.

The heating and air conditioning systems have also been designed to achieve a near-silent acoustic environment.

Byrum Hall

Byrum HallByrum Hall is a theatre that seats approximately 450 people and is used for theatre, opera, and musical theatre productions. It includes a proscenium stage, an orchestra pit that accommodates up to 20 musicians, a scene shop, a costume shop, green room, dressing rooms, and make-up area. A classroom and faculty offices are also located in Byrum Hall.

Park Place Church of God

Park Place Church of GodPark Place Church of God has had a long association with Anderson University, due to its close proximity. The Music Department of Anderson University was housed in Park Place Church until the completion of the Fine Arts Building in 1979. There are several performance events held in the sanctuary each year. Organ students have lessons and can practice on the pipe organ.

Park Place Church of God has the finest pipe organ in the area, built by Casavant Freres, St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada in May of 1960. Casavant is a leading name in organ builders and has designed and constructed organs in Canada and North America for more than a hundred years. The pipe organ was designed in cooperation with the church’s organ study committee and offers excellent resources for the varied services of the church and for concert performances. In 1993, a major organ restoration and renovation project was completed by Goulding and Wood, Inc., of Indianapolis. The organ console consists of three manuals (keyboards), together with the pedalboard, and controls the sounding of 60 ranks of more than 3,368 pipes in five divisions. These pipes vary in length from one inch to sixteen feet. The combination action with 32 levels of memory includes: twelve general pistons, eight pistons on each manual, one fixed crescendo, three adjustable crescendos, and two adjustable sforzandos. The console can be moved so that it is more visible for organ concerts. Many world-famous organists, including Virgil Fox and Dianne Bish, have given concerts on this organ

Reardon Auditorium

Reardon AuditoriumReardon Auditorium seats approximately 2,200 people and is equipped with modern audio and communication technology and a suite of dressing rooms. As the largest performance hall on campus, it is used for performances by large instrumental ensembles and for events such as Anderson University’s Candles and Carols (our annual Christmas Concert) that attract large audiences. Two dance performances are held in this venue each year, and musical theatre productions have taken place here in the past.

Academic Facilities

Dance Studio

Dance StudioThe Dance Annex is a new building on campus located behind the Kardatzke Wellness Center. It houses three new dance studios, lockers, practice and conditioning space. Our largest studio and black box theatre is located in the Kardatzke Wellness Center. All four dance studios are equipped with L’Air sprung floors, mirrors, and barres. Changing rooms are located in close proximity to the dance studio spaces.

Krannert Fine Arts Center

Krannert Fine Arts CenterKrannert Fine Arts Center is a two-story building that houses the music division of the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance. The music wing of the Fine Arts Center consists of the following: two large rehearsals rooms used by ensembles and for lyric theatre rehearsals, teaching studios, classrooms, the MIDI lab (keyboard/computer lab), practice rooms, recording studio, a song-writing room, and administrative offices.

Austin and Heaton Rehearsal Halls

Austin and Heaton Rehearsal HallsAustin and Heaton Rehearsal Halls, located in the Krannert Fine Arts Center, serve as the main rehearsal space for student and faculty voice, instrumental, piano, and major and chamber ensembles. The performance halls are equipped with Steinway and Yamaha grand pianos, and are tailored to meet the distinct acoustic needs of both vocal and instrumental performances. Sound recording from the Anderson University Recording Studio is possible in both Austin and Heaton Rehearsal Halls, thus providing high quality, state of the art recordings.

Specialized Technology

Breitweiser Music Technology Lab

MIDI LabThe newly renovated Breitweiser Music Technology Lab houses twenty individual workstations. Sixteen of these stations have laptops mounted to Yamaha CLP-635 digital pianos, providing the flexibility to use this room as both a piano classroom as well as a productivity space for composing and sound editing. These pianos are connected through a hub system that enable the instructor to listen to individual students or mix any combination of students into a cooperative ensemble. All stations include Sibelius (music notation), Pro Tools (digital audio workstation) and Auralia (ear training). In addition to these sixteen hybrid workstations, there are four desktop workstations that include additional software—Finale (notation software), Ableton Live 10 (digital audio workstation) and Reason (digital audio workstation emulating a virtual modular rack system)—and use a Kawaii MP5 as a MIDI controller and keyboard.

Orangehaus Records and Publishing

Orangehaus Records and Orangehaus PublishingOrangehaus Records provides an environment where students are developed and empowered to gain experience in the recording industry. Anderson University students influence every aspect of Orangehaus Records, such as developing, promoting, marketing, and booking student musicians. Orangehaus Records is one of only a few professional record labels affiliated with a university in the United States.

The recording studio features a digital hard disk recording studio with a Digidesign C|24 control surface, a ProTools HD native system, and Genelec studio monitor speakers. The control room is situated above one of the main rehearsal/recital spaces in the Fine Arts Building and is able to record up to 24 inputs from this room.

Adjacent to the control room upstairs are two smaller recording rooms in which smaller projects can be recorded. The primary purposes of this facility are to record student, faculty and ensemble performances for the music department and projects related to the music business program. Full-time AU students working on projects for music classes are able to use this facility free of charge, while others may use the facility for a nominal hourly rate.

As a division of Orangehaus Records, Orangehaus Publishing is a student-run company whose goal is to sign and develop songwriters at Anderson University. The company optimizes exposure of the songs to the public through effective marketing and promotional strategies in order to generate income for both the publisher and songwriter. The staff licenses songs from the Orangehaus catalog for use in recordings, film, video, television, product branding, and other uses.