The reviews are in, and the response to Ball State's new Music Instruction Building (MIB) and Sursa Performance Hall is wildly enthusiastic--"a stunning physical space ... technological wonderland ... musical jewel for the entire community ... spaces that will enhance the impact of the Ball State School of Music in Indiana and throughout the United States."

When Ball State planners considered sites and sketches for a new music complex several years ago, they shared lofty dreams as well as practical needs. "We knew that this was to be a place that would serve the campus and beyond," recalls Robert Kvam, dean of the College of Fine Arts. "We envisioned a showcase facility, easily accessible to the community and to the university."

The acreage had to accommodate a 73,000-square-foot building equipped with ample studios, offices, classrooms, libraries, and a performance venue that would seat about 600. All this had to be within steps of a multilevel parking garage.

In September 2004, with "mission accomplished," the doors opened to campus and community.

The cornerstone of the facility is Sursa Performance Hall, named in honor of benefactors David and Mary Jane Sursa. The splendid structure enhances the visual appeal of the campus, but more importantly serves the music instruction and performance programs beautifully. Special wall treatments make Sursa Hall acoustically "tunable" for optimal sound results, and the space has already attracted world-renowned musicians to campus. Violinist Midori and pianist Robert McDonald accepted an invitation to inaugurate the hall as part of the 2004-2005 Arts Alive concert series. They were followed at two-month intervals by pianist Krystian Zimerman and the Tokyo String Quartet. "Zimerman was dazzled by the facility," recalls Kvam. "He said it truly is one of the finest performance halls in America."

Two attributes of the MIB, seemingly at odds, are in perfect harmony. The building simultaneously enhances sound as it ensures silence. While the acoustics in the performance areas can be modified to reflect or absorb sound, making the listening experience more appropriate for the kind of music and the size of ensemble performing, practice rooms and studios "float" on raised floors to isolate sound and curb disruption to another area. The capacity to control sound is in marked contrast to the School of Music's older Hargreaves Building, where "the halls are alive with the sound of music"--not always on purpose.

"We were used to a lot of sound leakage," admits Kvam. "You could walk up and down a corridor, point to the closed doors of various practice rooms, and say, 'That's an oboe; that's a trumpet; that's a flute.' If you were in a studio and a percussionist was practicing below, you heard it."

Managing sound takes on a whole new dimension on the MIB's second floor, where the music technology program is based. One of only a handful in the country, the program offers its 90 students what may be the premier music technology facility in the country--catapulting the program to elite status. Eleven state-of-the-art studios are dedicated to computer music, composition, and recording technology, providing a remarkable range of choices for capturing true-to-life digital sound. No longer isolated in cramped quarters on the edge of campus, students and faculty can work on several projects simultaneously without waiting to gain access to certain equipment. 

"The new building not only helps recruit students, it also helps retain them," says program director Keith Kothman. "Our days are more productive in terms of the number of things we can do. When we planned the facility we worked hard to build in flexibility so the majority of the space serves more than one function."

Kothman acknowledges that in the ever-evolving discipline of music technology, equipment ages quickly. The quality of instruction, however, isn't dependent on what's new in the control room. "Our program doesn't teach people just to push buttons, because buttons change. How things work today may not be how they will work in five years," he says. "We have a strong interest in turning out graduates who have the ability to design the new buttons."

The operative word is "flexibility" in the music technology area and throughout the MIB. "From a performance and teaching standpoint, these facilities are as good as you'll find anywhere," says Kvam, who has served on accreditation teams and evaluated music programs across the country. "A lot of wonderful programs have aging facilities, but that's no longer the case at Ball State University."