Photo by: Charles Ng
After first opening its doors in June, the Robert and Judi Newman Center for the Performing Arts has begun its inaugural season.
Kicking off the year with the touring play The Guys, a two-character play about a journalist’s experiences in the aftermath of Sept. 11, the Newman Center’s season has performances scheduled throughout the year. The rest of the shows to be presented include a solo concert performance by Lila Downs in November, Felix Hall in December, The Duke Ellington Orchestra in January, Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal in February, Joshua Bell in March, Terry Gross in April, and finally the baritone vocal stylings of Dmitri Hvorostovsky to close the season in May 2004.
Every part of the Newman Center was made for a particular reason. Take the giant rose-shaped window located on the fifth floor. The rose, which was designed from a rose plucked from DU’s rose garden. Every piece of sculpture was donated, and in the case of the rose window, the Saunders family are the ones to thank. The rose window is a prime piece to include with the performance center because of the rose’s significance as a traditional gift for performers.
There is more to the Newman Center than meets the eye. Deep within the bowels of the complex is a maze of classrooms, studios and practice rooms that resonates with the sound of rehearsing students of the Lamont School of Music.
The space that houses Lamont consists of three large-volume rehearsal spaces for orchestra, opera/chorus and jazz; 42 faculty studios and 25 student practice rooms. Lamont also contains a professional digital recording studio as well as a large music library that is open for all of the music majors.
The other side of the Newman Center houses the Department of Theater. The working space of the Elizabeth Eriksen Byron Theater is constructed in such a way that one show can be performing onstage while another is being constructed and rehearsed behind the scenes. Full costume and scenic shops allow for the department’s faculty and staff to constructively train the theater majors in a wide range of skills and techniques.
The Byron Theater, designed by William Temple (Davy) Davis, provides students with a stage that can be shaped into whatever they desire, based on the demands of each production.
A majority of the performances that take place at the Newman Center occur in one of three venues. First there is the June Swaner Gates Concert Hall. This performance hall, which seats from 850-977 people, is reminiscent of the old elegant European opera houses. The second is the Frederic C. Hamilton Family Recital Hall. The recital hall, which seats 225, is the primary workhorse for recital performances of Lamont School students and faculty.
Finally there is the Byron Theater which, in seating up to 350, is the main-stage location for the Department of Theater. The 3,000-pipe organ, located in the Hamilton Recital Hall, was designed and built by Karl Schuke Berliner Orgelbauwerkstatt GmbH in Germany and was installed in August. The Gates Concert Hall, which with the help of its Wenger orchestra shells, allows most any kind of concert, from a full symphonic orchestra to a professional ballet company to perform on the stage.
