Rehearsal and Teaching Spaces
To prepare for outstanding performances in Sauder Concert Hall and Rieth Recital Hall, successful individual practicing and group rehearsing is essential. The Music Center offers two large rehearsal rooms and over 25 additional spaces for teaching and practicing. Remarkably, all of this music making can be conducted simultaneously without hearing anyone else’s music.
The key to this multi-use capability is the complete sound isolation throughout the facility. Brembeck Instrumental Hall and Zook Choral Hall each have foundation to roof isolation from the rest of the building, incorporating a two-inch air space with no structural contact.
The faculty studios and practice rooms have triple ceiling construction and two layers of concrete for the floors with sound separation material between them. Double walls have sound-absorbing insulation between the supports, with a three-inch air space between walls. All faculty studios have sound-separation doors that “drop” into place as they are closed. Student practice rooms have wooden doors that allow just enough sound into the hallways for others to enjoy their practicing.
Brembeck Instrumental Hall and Zook Choral Hall have hard surfaces and are very “live,” but have 15-foot curtains that can be deployed along nearly all wall surfaces. The goal of acousticians for these spaces was to approximate the type of sound experienced by performers in Sauder Concert Hall. Within the rooms are significant angles, an acoustical shelf at about 15 feet high, and ceiling mounted reflectors to provide side-to-side support for those rehearsing.