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January 25, 2007

To: Tufts Community

From: Jamshed Bharucha, Provost and Senior Vice President

I am delighted to announce the official opening of the Perry and Marty Granoff Music Center at Tufts. Named for Trustee Marty Granoff, its major donor and tireless fundraiser, and his wife, this magnificent building on Talbot Avenue will very likely be known as one of the finest music performance buildings in the Boston area.

To celebrate the place of music in the university and the broader life of the community, a series of academic, community, and social events over the first two weekends of February will inaugurate the Granoff Music Center. Distinguished academic leaders from New England will come to campus February 2 for a symposium on Music Futures: Defining a New Place for Music Studies. Trustee Weekend, February 9-11, will include a festival of music with various performances and events. The Music Department will launch a spectacular series of events this spring, including a concert by jazz great Nancy Wilson, coordinated with Black History Month. Many of these performances have seats set aside for the Tufts community on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information about events and seating, check with the Music Department at http://www.tufts.edu/musiccenter

We are proud that the first new academic building in this administration is an arts facility. The vision for the building is multi-faceted. Within Tufts, it will enable us to make our strong music department even stronger. Indeed, it has allowed us to recruit an outstanding new professor, Joseph Auner, who joined us this past fall as the new chair of the department. Joe has hit the ground running, building on the work of his predecessors to lead the department with great success. The music center also represents our commitment to the arts as core to the mission of a liberal arts education, serving the entire Tufts community. Colleges and universities have an important responsibility to preserve our cultural heritage, pass it on to our students, and explore new frontiers of thought and experience.

The building will also establish an unprecedented reputation for our music program within the Boston metropolitan area and national academic music circles. The wonderful Distler Hall, an acoustic jewel, will make possible expanded concert series and professional programming. Each year the Department of Music offers more than 100 concerts, in a huge range of styles and traditions from all over the world, and with music from the Middle Ages to the present day. The department ensembles, which are open to all Tufts students by audition, include Symphony Orchestra, Chorus, Flute Ensemble, Wind Ensemble, Gospel Choir, Early Music, New Music, Javanese Gamelan, Klezmer, Middle Eastern Ensemble, African Drumming and Dance, Opera, Chamber Music, and Jazz. With the opening of the Granoff Music Center, these diverse activities finally have a worthy home, which includes a 300-seat recital hall, a music library, three classrooms, a world music room, faculty offices, rehearsal spaces, and a multi-media lab.

Finally, the new building is intended to serve our host communities of Medford and Somerville. One of the tragedies of recent decades is that music and the arts have been pushed to the edges in our public schools. We believe it's important for us to do our part to contribute to the artistic enrichment and education of the communities within which we live and work. As part of the building's dedication and festivities, the Community Music Program, under the direction of Edith Auner, will present free workshops for children in grades K-12 on Saturday February 10, 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM, which are open to the public and the Tufts community. The Music Department will launch a Saturday Community Music Program for young musicians next fall.

The dedication of the new Granoff Music Center has been an extraordinary undertaking involving the efforts of many departments and individuals, including the Department of Music, the Office of the Dean of Arts & Sciences, Advancement, Special Events, Communications, and the Provost's Office. Thanks should also go to the many donors and supporters who have made this possible. Music education, and music as a part of our everyday lives at Tufts, will be richer from today forward.

More:
http://www.tufts.edu/musiccenter