Five Years of Expanded Music Facilities

April 21, 2014—The year 2014 marks an important milestone for the School of Music and Dance: it has been five years since the 2009 renovation and expansion of the MarAbel B. Frohnmayer Music Building.

The upgraded facilities now match the status of the school as the premier higher-education institution of music and dance in the Pacific Northwest.

The expansion was also a welcome change. Each year the school serves 500 major and more than 5,000 nonmajor students in classrooms, rehearsal rooms, studios, and practice rooms. Prior to the renovation, those spaces were designed for fewer than 300 students.

The $19.7 million renovation was funded by state bond sales and private donations. The project included two additions of approximately 29,000 square feet, increasing the size of the Frohnmayer Music Building by 50 percent, for a total of 90,000 square feet.

Renovation Highlights

  • a new academic wing named for Leona DeArmond ’51, featuring teaching studios, a new music education lab, two new classrooms, and a new suite of practice rooms
  • a refurbished and expanded performance wing named for Thelma Schnitzer ’40, featuring a symphony-sized rehearsal hall along with dedicated teaching, practice, and rehearsal studios for the jazz and percussion programs
  • a 2,800-square-foot instrumental rehearsal space named for Audrey "Avis" Aasen-Hull ’39 and her husband, Byrne Hull
  • the addition of a dedicated jazz rehearsal room and teaching and practice rooms
  • a new state-of-the-art recording studio reconfigured and renovated electronic music studios a new percussion teaching studio and practice rooms
  • a renovated computer laboratory with twenty workstations thirty new acoustically sound-isolated faculty teaching studios
  • a renovated office space for graduate teaching fellows
  • a renovated office space for administrative staff members improved quality of space in the building overall, including sound isolation, acoustical performance, technical infrastructure, and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning
  • public lounge spaces
  • an enhanced and enclosed central courtyard, with three sculptures, named for the late UO voice professor Florence "Penny" Vanderwicken Duprey