Editor’s note: This story has been updated with fundraising information.
Texas A&M University will break ground on the new $40 million John D. White ’70 – Robert L. Walker ’58 Music Activities Center on Friday, Sept. 8, at 2:30 p.m., at the corner of George Bush Drive and Coke Street in College Station.
“The center will allow us to bring together all the bands, choirs and orchestras under one roof to learn and grow musically, in addition to academically,” said Texas A&M Director of Bands and Music Activities Timothy Rhea. “Music is an important part of both our human and our university experiences, and the new center will be like everything Texas A&M does — first class.”
Performances by portions of the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band and Singing Cadets will kick off the event, and special guests, including The Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp and Regent Charles Schwartz , and Texas A&M’s President Michael K. Young and Vice President for Student Affairs Daniel J. Pugh, will offer remarks about the construction project.
“This greatly needed new facility will enable our already amazing choral and instrumental groups, whether marching across athletic fields or performing in music halls across the nation, to strike even more successful chords,” Young said. “I appreciate the tremendously generous donations that were made by our many supporters as well as the immense amount of time and astute counsel provided by our talented faculty, staff and administrators, which together make this vastly more sophisticated music center possible.”
The new 70,000-square-foot center will accommodate more than 1,300 student musicians who participate in a total of 14 orchestras, choral groups and bands, including the nationally acclaimed Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band. Most notably, four rehearsal halls with state-of-the-art acoustics will allow various musical groups to rehearse simultaneously; the Aggie Band will rehearse outdoors on a 100-yard artificial turf practice field as well as indoors for the first time in more than six years; the student musicians will have unprecedented access to individual soundproof practice rooms during and after school hours; and the students will have the convenience of ample storage and locker space for their instruments and other necessities. The resource-efficient, silver-certified LEED design, which Brown Reynolds Watford Architects, and Hammel, Green and Abrahamson, Inc. collaborated to create, also will provide plenty of room for future growth.
The new music center replaces the E.V. Adams Band Hall built in 1970 that ceased to adequately house and efficiently service all of the members of the university’s various musical groups long ago. Construction, conducted by SpawGlass, is expected to wrap up near the end of the summer 2019 semester so the students can begin using the facility in the fall.
“I am excited about the capital projects that are being constructed on the campus,” Sharp said. “This band hall will be worthy of A&M’s 14 choirs, orchestras and bands, including the one band that has never lost a halftime.”
Texas A&M is funding half of the $40 million project, and the Texas A&M Foundation is funding the other half. The foundation has already secured $19.3 million, including a $10 million naming gift from the Ed Rachal Foundation in Corpus Christi, said Cindy Munson, senior director of major gifts for the foundation.
“Our team is thrilled that after years of planning and creative fundraising, a new John D. White ’70 – Robert L. Walker ‘58 Music Activities Center is going to become a reality for Texas A&M University students,” said Pugh. “This groundbreaking is further proof of the incredible loyalty and generosity of our former students and organizations such as the Ed Rachal Foundation. It’s also indicative of the commitment of The Texas A&M University System and university leadership to our student musical groups, which deserve such a state-of-the-art facility in which to rehearse and perform.”
An additional $540,000 is needed to meet the project’s $20 million fundraising goal through the Texas A&M Foundation. An additional $2.5 million also will be needed for project overages and maintenance. Donor support that helps to construct this grand facility will help to transform music education at Texas A&M, and naming opportunities are still available that fund a space, a room or a pillar inside or outside the building. Matching gifts from a donor’s employer could double, triple or quadruple the size of the gift. To contribute a major gift of $25,000 or more to the Music Activities Center, contact Cindy Munson, senior director of major gifts, at cmunson@txamfoundation.com or 979-845-7558, or give online at give.am/SupportAggieMusic.
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Media contact: Timothy Rhea, Director of Bands & Head of Music Activities, at (979) 845-3529 or trhea@tamu.edu; or Elena Watts, Division of Marketing & Communications, at (979) 458-8412 or elenaw@tamu.edu.
