Musicians at Tufts have eagerly awaited this moment for years. Now, only a couple of months before winter break, the completion of Tufts' new music facility is finally in sight.
Tufts is slated to take control of the new music building from the construction company Dec. 15, at which point the music department will move in all their equipment. The building will open its doors for use by the start of the spring semester on Jan. 18. The new building is currently undergoing its finishing touches.
All in all, Tufts' music center will include an upgraded Aidekman Arts Center, a brand new, state-of-the-art music building and a centralized music department featuring all of Tufts' music facilities in two neighboring buildings.
The upgrade will supplement what has been a "strong" but "under-furnished" music department, according to sophomore music major Dan Cooperman.
The new music building, the linchpin of the project, will feature a cutting-edge recital hall, another smaller performance room, classrooms, a media lab and an expanded music library.
"The new, 300-seat, acoustically-tuned recital hall will work for music from classical to jazz," Music Department Publicist and Events Manager Ryan Saunders said. "It won't be the pit that Cohen [Auditorium in Aidekman] is. Cohen is not as well-engineered."
The recital hall will feature advanced recording equipment and a sound booth. "It will double as a recording studio," Saunders added.
The new building will also feature a secondary performance and rehearsal space to seat up to 100 people. Whereas the larger recital hall aims to replace Cohen Auditorium, this smaller space will take the place of the Alumnae Lounge, the more intimate performance room in Aidekman.
Saunders emphasized the fact that students will be encouraged to perform in both of the new music halls: "We are going to open [the main recital hall] up to student groups. We already encouraged the a capella groups to perform there." He added, "Our movement out of Cohen and Alumnae will open up space to student groups there."
The new music building's computer lab will feature advanced music technology and provide new opportunities for students and teachers.
"The computer lab will have 12 work stations and a teacher station," Music Department Chair Joseph Auner said. "It will be set up with pretty much every type of music technology you'll want. It will be used for theory classes, courses in computer music and doing classwork." Auner will teach a music and technology course in the computer lab this spring.
The new music building will include an expanded music library, in which the university will be able to house all its texts, scores and CDs. Aidekman's old music library, which closed last spring for construction, was only big enough to hold about a third of the resources Tufts owned. The new library will also have a reading room.
"The new library will be wonderful. It will be nice to have everything there," Cooperman said.
The new music building will also feature climate-controlled personal instrument lockers for student musicians. To some students, this addition is long overdue. "It's frustrating to have to go across campus to practice because there are no lockers yet, and I spend most of my days lugging my instrument across campus," Cooperman said.
The music department recently purchased 20 new pianos for the new music building, including 12 Steinway grands and eight Yamaha uprights.
The new music building will benefit current Tufts students, but it will also aid the university in attracting new applicants.
"Knowing that a new building was coming was one of my attractions in coming here, because I knew it meant there was support for the arts currently and that arts would continue to flourish," said Cooperman, who transferred to Tufts this fall.
"I hope the new building will allow us to attract new music majors," Auner said. "It seems to me that Tufts should be an ideal place for kids who want to double major in music and other things."
Senior music major Mollie Birney said that the new facilities will enhance what was already a strong department. "It wasn't the facilities that drew me to Tufts; the faculty is actually quite well-reputed. Tufts' [music department's] reputation is solid," she said.
The renovation of the Aidekman Arts Center basement is already complete, with soundproofed practice spaces and refurbished classrooms sprucing up the old building. This is a noteworthy improvement, since "roaches, rats and walls that were really porous in terms of sound" plagued the basement in the past, according to Birney.
Furthermore, "musicians were incessantly in search of space where they could rehearse, and nothing was available" before the renovation of Aidekman, added Birney. Now there is ample space and soundproofing.
Thanks to the new music building, the now-scattered music department will be more centralized next spring. Aidekman and the new music building, which together will house the entire department, sit next-door to each other.
"Everything is brand-spankin' new and state-of-the-art," Saunders said, "It's like a big birthday present for the whole, entire campus."
"I think that, just by opening these doors, it'll push the music program to a higher level," Saunders continued, "And it will be the biggest music center in Medford or Somerville. Talbot Avenue will be like its own center for the arts."
