Are Pfeiffer Hall and Wentz Concert Hall a part of North Central College or are they separate? If they are a part of the college, they should provide for students first, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. If you go to their webpages, you will not see any mention of what they provide for students. If these venues are separate from the school, this needs to be clearly established. The venues seem to be revenue streams for the institution that allow students to occupy the studios at times, giving off the false impression that they are there mainly for student use. At least North Central classes are conducted in Pfeiffer Hall and a few faculty members have offices located in Pfeiffer.
Music students are often inconvenienced when denied access to the studios or practice rooms when they need them. This is usually to benefit “famous musicians” who are visiting the school for various reasons. Vanessa Lostumbo, an instrumental and choral music major at North Central College, is very frustrated from being constantly inconvenienced by the institution’s concert halls. Lostumbo recounted several times being turned away from Pfeiffer Hall and sent over to Wentz Concert Hall to find all of the studios and practice rooms occupied with other students or performers. She said, “since I have three different lessons to practice for, as well as trying to learn secondary instruments, I’m in the studios as often as possible.”
According to Tami Kidd-Brown, secretary of fine & performing arts at Wentz Concert Hall, North Central College has played host to several artists in the past year “such as Bela Fleck, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Celtic Woman, Huey Lewis, Jars of Clay, Patti Lupone, Rick Springfield, Scotty McCreery, Jonny Lang, Peter Frampton and many more.” Hosting so many artists for a private institution as small as North Central is definitely exciting, but who are these musical acts attracting? Students like Lostumbo typically didn’t know anything about these “famous musicians.”
Kidd-Brown also expressed how she tries to eliminate any possible inconvenience by communicating with professors and faculty about when “famous musicians” will need to take over the venues. If a lesson cannot be moved to another time or place Kidd-Brown says she communicates with security by giving the student and faculty member names then allowing them to stay on-site until the lesson ends.
It isn’t just “famous musicians” causing headaches for music students practicing their crafts in these studios and practice rooms the “first come, first served” policy seems iffy. Joshua Lahey, a junior majoring in organizational communication and minoring in theater, said his struggle regarding access to these rooms came from dealing with fellow students. Lahey recounted a time when he was practicing choral music during the 2015 winter term and was asked to leave by three students who needed to work on their midterm assignment and Lahey was the only person occupying a room who was not working on a midterm assignment.
A simple solution would appear to be adding more studio space around campus for student use only, which will put a dent in the institution’s pockets but it would make it easier on students and these venues to work freely without awkward encounters. The frustrations of students like Lostumbo and Lahey should be a concern to North Central College, “their only accommodation the many times I was turned away from Pfeiffer was to go to Wentz, which was typically full with other students who were kicked out of Pfeiffer, or some other performer.”
Of course, all students aren’t as frustrated as Lostumbo, but I doubt any music students would oppose to the school offering more studio space. Even Joshua Lahey, who has never taken his concerns or issues with the studio spaces to any faculty because he feels, “it isn’t their problem, it’s ours [the students],” even said he “loves the idea of more studios for working” despite never feeling the inconveniences have prevented him from completing a project.
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The facilities are all most definitely a part of North Central College. There are many faculty members offices, practice rooms, and classes held in both the Fine Arts Center (home to Wentz Concert Hall and Madden Theatre), and Pfeiffer Hall.
Faculty and student productions always take precedence over presented shows and rentals. These shows are plugged into the calendar before any other performances or rentals are booked. If there is a faculty or student production taking place at the same time as a presented event, the dressing rooms and back stage areas are given to those student and faculty productions, first and foremost. The presented events then use whatever spaces are left available. Sometimes this means my having to use the practice rooms, or a faculty members office (with their permission) as a dressing room for our visiting Artists.
There are, on rare occasions, times when an Artists performance is on a day when classes are in session. Normal protocol in this situation is to not use any of the spaces until after 4:00 p.m. A time when most classes are over. There are also times where it is in the Artists contract that absolutely no one can be in the back stage area except for essential staff. If we know in advance that there will be evening lessons going on in a building, we do our best to make arrangements in advance with the instructor. The lessons will then either be moved to one of the other venues, or we allow them to continue if they are not in a room that we are using.
We try very hard to make it work for everyone. I am sorry that Miss Lostumbo’s experiences have been negative. I myself have never been approached by her about this issue. I would have tried to help find a solution for her.
There are approximately 30 to 40 presented performances at North Central College each year. Less than a handful of those performances are on a normal school day. The majority of the shows are on Saturday’s and Sunday’s, and shouldn’t disrupt any teaching hours.
P.s. We would love for our students to attend these performances. We quite frequently offer student discounts and/or “Student Rush” tickets. We have had some of the worlds greatest musicians perform here. They are really missing out.
Can we have John Mayer to perform here please?
I would LOVE to have John Mayer here! If only it were even close to being within the budget…..
What about Lindsey Stirling? Or pentatonix maybe? Can we have something nice for once?
Would you be willing to pay $150-$300+ dollars for a ticket? As much as we would love to bring in John Mayer, just the Artist fees alone would make that impossible. It takes major sponsor support for a small venue like ours, to have the ability to bring in big name Artists.
Truthfully, the main issue here is the lack of space. Six practice rooms is not enough for a world-class concert hall that doubles as an educational space. However, constructing a 3rd floor to Wentz certainly isn’t an “simple solution” – there are a number of construction projects that are taking precedence at the moment.
It is frustrating that schedule conflicts arise – I had a friend who had to reschedule a recital due to an outside performer who needed the space – but most of these are well communicated to the students. Everyone has access to the college calendar, which lists the performances and rehearsals quite clearly for all to see. Also, students have to be aware that there are busy times and not so busy times at Wentz and Pfeiffer. If you’re looking for a practice room at 4:00 on a Friday, it certainly won’t be as open as it will be five hours later. There is no way that the college can build a facility where everyone has a practice room available whenever they need one, and students need to be aware of the peak times and schedule around them.
There are some excellent venues on campus, and I believe it’s a wonderful experience to open them to the community. North Central prides itself with its ties to the local and international communities – why close them to our performance venues?
This is idiotic. The author appears to have done no research into the fact that schools similar in size/demographics to NCC bring in relatively similar amounts of outside musicians, and that even if we do bring in more outside talent, these outside musicians are mostly a benefit to NCC students and alumni (it’s really how we’re able to have Wentz at all).
The actual problem is that there aren’t enough practice rooms. That’s why a student was kicked out of one (by other students). That’s the issue this article should’ve addressed. Pfeiffer gets locked after ten, and you get called out for disturbing (NCC) musical rehearsals if you practice in there before then. Wentz has an unbelievably small number of practice rooms considering the students who need to practice; that’s the issue we need to address.
Side note: the author writes “famous musicians” in quotes like what I just did. Since I don’t think anyone is doubting whether or not these people are musicians, it should probably look like this: “famous” musicians. Of course, since I was horrendously misquoted every time I was interviewed for the Chronicle as a student, I’m not surprised.