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Music Academy Hits High Note

Posted on: Friday, 19 May 2006, 18:02 CDT

By Ryan Robinson, Lancaster New Era, Pa.

May 19--Suits and stringed instruments mixed with gold-painted shovels and hard hats today as the Pennsylvania Academy of Music broke ground for its new $21 million facility at 42 N. Prince St.

A scissors-lift truck elevated a string quartet to symbolize the "rising" of the new building.

"We've spent 15 years talking about this, and today I'm speechless," said academy president Michael Jamanis, who co-founded the academy with his wife, Frances Veri. "I think we're making history today."

The new building is expected to anchor the Lancaster Arts Corridor. Mayor Rick Gray said arts can provide the city with an economic driver.

"Lancaster is the capital of arts in central Pennsylvania," he said. "It is up to us to really realize our potential."

The project, which will expand the academy five-fold to 63,000 square feet and create a 367-seat recital hall, will help make that happen, he said.

About 150 people attended the groundbreaking ceremony in the parking lot next to the former AAA building.

Speeches were interrupted by noise from a helicopter and passing cars along Prince Street.

Acoustics in the new building, however, will be top-notch, thanks to Cyril Harris, one of the world's top acoustic experts.

The academy's new three-story building "will attract artists of great quality," Harris said today at the ceremony.

The state provided $7.5 million and the county $1 million toward the project's expected $21 million construction cost, according to the academy's Libby Sternberg. Private donations covered the remaining portion.

Some preliminary work has actually already begun, and the former AAA building at 34 N. Prince St. will be razed before construction begins.

Water Street will have to be closed for a few weeks in June, and the west lane of North Prince Street also will close for a week, according to Stephen C. Lee of Benchmark Construction Co.

"I hope to pour concrete in July," he said.

Construction is expected to be completed in 2008.

The new facility will have 13 private studios, a string institute, a percussion studio, rooms for choral study and performance, and state-of-the-art recording facilities with broadcast capabilities.

Also, it will have a new computer lab, a modern and expanded library, classrooms for theory and composition, rehearsal rooms for both choral and instrumental use, an atrium, and public rooms for conferences, conventions and community functions.

Benchmark, of Brownstown, recently completed the Rolex Lititz Watch Technicum and the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design.

The new facility was designed by the late Philip Johnson of Philip Johnson and Alan Ritchie Architects, designers of the AT&T headquarters in New York City and several renowned concert venues.

Harris' work includes the Kennedy Center and New York's Metropolitan Opera.

The private academy's more than 350 students study disciplines ranging from instrumental and vocal performance to music composition and theory, improvisation, accompanying and recording.

The school will be able to accommodate up to 600 students after the expansion.

In April, the school moved to a temporary home in Liberty Place, the former Armstrong World Industries headquarters building on Liberty Street.

Founded in 1990, the nonprofit pre-collegiate institution is one of only 12 autonomous music schools in the country accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music.

Pennsylvania Academy of Music co-founders Michael Jamanis fifth from left and his wife Frances Veri second from left today break ground for the academy's new building with Mayor Rick Gray fourth from left and others at the project site along North Prince Street.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Lancaster New Era, Pa.

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Source: Lancaster New Era

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