Green Music Center Opens This Weekend at SSU

As the Donald and Maureen Green Music Center at Sonoma State University is opening after more than 20 years of planning.

The inaugural program at the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Hall inside the Green Music Center kicks off today, Sept. 29.

For information and to purchase tickets for upcoming shows, click here.

“With the opening of the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Hall, Sonoma State University has added a new and significant cultural dimension to this already vibrant community,” said Len Auerbach, founding principal of Auerbach Pollock Friedlander, which provided theatre design and consulting services to the new center.

The firm also collaborated with the design architect William Rawn Associates, architect of record AC Martin Partners, acoustician Kirkegaard Associates and Sonoma State University.

As the centerpiece of the facility, the 1,400-seat concert hall was designed to showcase music and the human voice as well as other performance programming.

The center also includes a music education hall, hospitality center and a recital hall still in construction. The hall was modeled after the Seji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, also designed by William Rawn, and features a rear wall that can be opened to provide viewing and listening from outdoor lawn seating for about 5,000 additional patrons.

The hall will be used for the university’s performance program, as a regular venue for the Santa Rosa Symphony, the Bach Choral Society and other Bay
Area orchestras. In addition to its formal acoustic environment, the hall provides unique flexibility for staging, variable acoustics, overhead rigging and support for a variety of popular performance events.

According to the Sonoma Index-Tribune, the Green Music Center is estimated to cost in excess of $145 million.

To read the article, click here.