Robert and Judi Newman Center for Performing Arts
The Newman Center for Performing Arts
The Robert and Judi Newman Center for Performing Arts is located on the University of Denver campus. Robert and Judi Newman were asked by former Chancellor Daniel L. Ritchie to spearhead the fundraising effort for the building. They also made a substantial donation to the Center’s fundraising efforts. The Newman Center officially opened in fall of 2002 and the three main performance venues officially opened in spring 2003.
The Center is divided into many academic and rehearsal spaces and performance venues, including Virginia E. Trevorrow Hall on the north end of the building houses the Lamont School of Music and includes various academic and rehearsal facilities. The three main performance venues are located on the main floor of the Center and include June Swaner Gates Concert Hall, an opera house, Frederic C. Hamilton Recital Hall, an intimate recital space and Elizabeth Eriksen Byron Theatre, a black box theatre, and the Ada and Galen Belle Spencer Meet-the-Artist Room 1. The Newman Center provides a mix of eclectic performances including theatre, dance, world and classical music. Performers include international touring artists, local performing arts organizations, as well as the award-winning musicians, singers and thespians of the University of Denver. Shows are open to the University faculty and students as well as the general public.
June Swaner Gates Concert Hall
This venue is probably the most widely used of the venues. It is known for its great acoustics, which were designed by Kirkegaard Associates. Gates Concert Hall has a large performing stage, an orchestra pit, a Wenger orchestra shell used for full symphony and chamber orchestras, and tiered seating for the audience. Gate Concert Hall is used for operatic, musical and dance shows. It seats 849-971 people.
Joy Burns Plaza
This is main artery of the Newman Center and serves as a lounge and study area for staff and students during the day and as the lobby for the performances that take place in the venues in the evenings. The Plaza is elegant with high ceilings, large windows, tall columns, chandeliers, Italian travertine marble floors and custom-made furniture by Daniel Strawn. The M Allan Frank Family Box Office is located in the Plaza, which is where tickets for performances may be purchased.
Frederic C. Hamilton Family Recital Hall
This hall is used for recital performances by the students and faculty members of the Lamont School of Music, but is also available for public rental. Hamilton Hall includes a 9-foot Steinway concert grand piano and the William K. Coors organ, a 2,850-pipe European tracker action organ designed and built by Karl Schuke Berliner Orgelbauwerkstatt in Berlin, Germany. It seats 222 people.
Elizabeth Eriksen Byron Theatre
Also known as the “Byron Flexible Theatre,” this space is used for students with theatre majors to learn the practice of theatre production. The theatre is capable of making more than 40 different seating and staging arrangements and has an adjacent rehearsal room. There are some professional performances shown in this theatre. It seats 350 people.
Virginia E. Trevorrow Hall
This is the north wing of the Newman Center building and its facilities are mainly used by the Lamont School of Music faculty, staff and music majors. The Lamont School of Music has more than three hundred music majors as well as non-music majors who use the facilities throughout the year. The following facilities are included in this hall.
Academic Facilities
The academic spaces include Lamont offices (Main Administrative Office, PR Office and Lamont Admissions), state-of-the-art classrooms, 42 faculty studies, 35 student practice rooms, Wolf Conference Room (22-seat board room style meeting space), a recording studio which contains a drum booth (with walls lined with river rocks), an electronic piano lab, a music library, and a student lounge. The student lounge located on the 5th floor has a custom-made west-facing window in the shape of a rose, made from Indiana limestone. It was a gift given by Mr. [...] Sanders.
Rehearsal Facilities
There are various rehearsal and practice rooms that are available to both faculty and students. The Carol L. Moore Vocal Rehearsal Room is the main rehearsal space for the Lamont School of Music Opera and Choral programs. The Orchestra Rehearsal Room is the main rehearsal space for the Lamont Symphony Orchestra, the Lamont Wind Ensemble and the Pioneer Pep Band. There is also a Jazz Rehearsal Room, which is used by the jazz and commercial music programs at the school. Virtual Practice Rooms are also available that are equipped with Virtual Room Acoustic Systems, which creates reverberations in a small space so the acoustics in the rooms can sound like a large concert hall. On the 5th floor, there are various Student Practice Rooms, which are available for student use on a first-come, first-serve basis and are each equipped with a Steinway piano.
Williams Recital Salon
This room is used for solo recitals, chamber music recitals and rehearsals, and a large lecture classroom. It is the venue used for Flo’s Underground, a live jazz performance on Fridays during the academic year from 5:00pm to 7:00pm by current Lamont jazz students. It seats 80 people.