Steve J. Sherman
From left, Robert Appel '53, Ellen Adelson '58 and Austin Kiplinger '39, co-chairs
of the Music Campaign for the Renovation of Lincoln Hall, speak to the Weill
Recital Hall crowd about the campaign on Dec. 4.
Some of the Music Deparment's brightest stars filled a sold-out Weill Recital Hall with the sound of music during a Dec. 4 performance at Carnegie Hall in New York.
Fortepianist Malcolm Bilson and soprano Judith Kellock joined pianists Xak Bjerken, David Borden, Edward Murray and the Cornell Chamber Singers in a program that featured Gershwin, Brahms, Mozart, Haydn and Chopin.
The evening, billed as "The Lincoln Hall Renaissance," paid tribute to Cornell's music program and raised awareness for the renovation of Lincoln Hall, the Music Department's home on the Cornell campus.
Hosts for the evening's activities, which featured a champagne reception, were Cornell President Hunter Rawlings and his wife, Elizabeth; Carnegie Hall board chairman Sanford Weill and his wife, Joan; and Natan and Jessica Weill Bibliowicz. Weill, his daughter and son-in-law are Cornell alumni.
The Department of Music has had three separate addresses on campus since its cre ation in 1903. No site has been ideal for educating students in music studies. Lincoln Hall, which the department moved to in the 1960s, gave faculty and students more elbow room and a permanent home, but the stone structure, originally built for the study of civil engineering and architecture, remains inadequate for music instruction and appreciation.
The $15 million Lincoln Hall renovation and expansion project would provide the de partment with 50 percent more space. Key elements of the project include a climate con trol system to ensure the proper maintenance of instruments and library collections, a two -story rehearsal room and a computer lab.
The Department of Music offers courses to 2,000 students annually, of which 900 participate in many of the department's performing groups. The department offers more than 100 public concerts each year.