Whether you're into acoustic intricacies or you just enjoy the arts in an "intimate" setting, you may want to check out Westminster College's new $7 million Emma Eccles Jones Conservatory.
Everyone is invited to the building's grand opening Friday at 11 a.m. with a cornerstone ceremony and ending with interactive tours at 3 p.m. A free reception begins at 2:30 p.m.
Inside the conservatory you'll soon hear from the likes of Westminster's Candace Conyers, a junior majoring in sociology and psychology with a minor in theater. She is also part of the school's elite chamber choir.
"I think it's a spectacular facility," Conyers said. So great that the choir has needed time just to get used to a higher level of acoustics. "I'm just so excited for our first concert in October."
The 35,000-square-foot addition to the school's Courage Theater has tripled the volume of performance space available on campus. And it has opened up more opportunities for students and the community to get involved, Conyers said.
"We had great programs but we had no place for them to expand," said Mary Jane Chase, dean of the school of arts and sciences. She hopes community members will want to try out for singing and acting parts in the new place.
Expanded concert series and poetry series and more plays are a few changes the community will notice. For the students, there are seven new "acoustically sound" practice rooms.
Bryan Jacobs, the building's technical director, spent over 10 years with the Hale Center Theater in West Valley City and has been in plenty of performance centers over the years. To him, Westminster's new conservatory borders on the incomparable.
"It's state-of-the-art everything you'd want to ask for in the new building," he said. "It really nests music and theater departments in a way I've not seen in any campus I've been on."
Several major donations funded the construction of the building, which now houses the Vieve Gore concert hall and the Dumke student/black box theater.
Events are scheduled for October through next April. For more information, visit the Web site www.westminstercollege.edu/cultural_events or call 832-2457.
E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com