PRESIDENT’S PERSPECTIVE

For 25 years—a quarter century—Skid-

more’s need for a new music building had been evident. Now the aspirations of our music faculty and students have been realized in the new Arthur Zankel Music Center. Having long ago out- grown the venerable Filene Music Build- ing, they now have the practice rooms, faculty offices, teaching facilities, and, most especially, the performance spaces required to achieve their ambitions. One might think that was enough to hope for, but in true Skidmore fashion, the Zankel Center has been conceived and created to do and be so much more. It truly represents a major new all-College resource.

The first clue to its broader mission lies in the Zankel Center’s location at the campus entrance, where it serves as a gateway, welcoming visitors to Skidmore. At the first concert this past February, our students, faculty members, and staff were joined by many people from the Saratoga community in embrac- ing Zankel as their hall. It was fit- ting that this opening event featured the Ensemble ACJW Fellows from Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute, underscoring our expec- tation that in the coming years this building will become a focal point for numerous collaborations with other arts organizations—regional, national, and international.

Placing the center so prominently also reemphasizes our commitment to the arts and our belief in the centrality of creativity to a Skidmore education. What better way to say that creative thought does truly matter? The Zankel creates an arts cluster with the nearby Janet Kinghorn Bernhard Theater, Sais- selin Art Center, and, of course, Filene. But it also sits in juxtaposition to the Dana Science Center. Just as the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery provides an interdisciplinary space to create knowledge through

object exhibitions, the Zankel Center will serve as an interdisciplinary campus crossroads—a space where issues and ideas will be explored from many points of view, both artistic and conceptual.

Beyond geography,

SKIDMORE PRESIDENT PHILIP A. GLOTZBACH

there is also the design of the building itself. The Zankel Center’s exterior lines gesture to the angularity of the Tang, while its most visible materials—brick, copper, glass—embrace the architectural “language” of the campus as a whole. The dazzling Helen Filene Ladd Concert Hall seats 600 for a musical event but, with additional seating added on the

THE ZANKEL EMBODIES THE HIGHEST

LEVEL OF EXCELLENCE IN DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION—REFLECTING THE

PERFORMANCE WE EXPECT OF OUR ACADEMIC PROGRAMS,

OUR FACULTY, AND OUR STUDENTS.

stage, will hold even more for a lecture or symposium. Other features of the Zankel’s construction are less apparent to the external observer. The practice rooms, for example, are capacious and prevent sounds from traveling from one to another. At the same time, they also incorporate the small but wonderfully humanizing touch of exterior windows. As any musician will tell you, practice spaces are generally relegated to the deep dark recesses of music buildings, sacrific- ing the uplifting connection to light and the outside world in service of acoustic separation. But not ours! Structurally, the building consists of three contiguous but acoustically iso- lated units: the Ladd Concert Hall, the educational and classroom wing (includ- ing the versatile Elisabeth Luce Moore Hall for lectures and recitals), and the mechanical wing. The latter includes all of the heating, cooling, and electrical

elements essential to a building such as this —elements that can wreak havoc with the quality of the sound in the other spaces. But in part because the walls and foundations of these three separate “blocks” are joined

without actually touching, we have a well-ventilated, appropriately lighted, and fully powered facility—including, most importantly, the acoustically superb Ladd Concert Hall—that is free of re- ferred vibrations and mechanical noises that might otherwise distract audiences. In these and many other ways, the Zan - kel embodies the highest level of excel- lence in design and construction —reflecting the performance we expect of our academic programs, our faculty, and our students. Yet it does so in a most unassuming way. In short, the Arthur Zankel Music Center exemplifies a com- mitment to quality without gran di - osity that reflects our Skidmore values. In the following pages, you will learn much more about this magnificent new building, and I hope that before long you will have an opportunity to see it in person, if you have not done so already. I would be remiss, however, if I did not acknowledge one who will not see it, but whose spirit is manifested in every panel, beam, and tile: Arthur Zankel. Reflecting their enduring commitment to Skidmore, Arthur and his family— including our alumni Kenny ’82, Jimmy ’92, Pia ’92, and Harun ’01—have pro- vided a wonderful legacy, one that builds proudly upon our past even as it points the way forward into an ever greater future. So when you do visit, I would ask you to remember Arthur and reflect upon all that this building means, which is so much more than mere mor- tar and brick.

4 SCOPE SPRING 2010

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