Tuesday (3/22) on the New York Times blog Arts Beat, Robin Pogrebin reports, “The financier Sanford I. Weill and his wife, Joan, have given a $12 million gift to Sonoma State University—the largest cash gift in the university’s history—for the completion of a concert hall at the Green Music Center, the university announced on Tuesday. The opening is scheduled for fall 2012. ‘I think it’s going to be an incredible destination,’ Mr. Weill said in a telephone interview. The Weills learned about the project shortly after buying a home in Sonoma’s wine country, and Mr. Weill asked to visit the center, which he said had been in the works for 12 years at a cost of $100 million. ‘I saw this hall and what they were doing,’ Mr. Weill said. ‘I thought it was absolutely beautiful and to my ear the sound sounded terrific.’ … Designed by the architect William Rawn and the acoustician Lawrence Kirkegaard, the 1,400-seat Joan and Sanford I. Weill Hall is modeled after Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood and aims to replicate the sound of Vienna’s Musikverein and Symphony Hall in Boston. … The Santa Rosa Symphony will be the Center’s orchestra in residence.”
Posted March 23, 2011
