An architect'due south rendering of the arts middle, as it would await from the campus green. Photos courtesy of University of Southern Maine

Alan Kaschub, director of the School of Music at the University of Southern Maine, looks frontward to the day he can starting time feeling cornball virtually Corthell Hall, the celebrated and longtime home of the music school. For now, the often-renovated 1878 building remains mostly a source of frustration.

"It'south a beautiful building, but it's not a purpose-built building," Kaschub said. "There is a lot of sound leakage between rooms. Nosotros take a one-person elevator that we accept to use to motion all of our equipment – and we travel a lot. When nosotros play at Merrill Auditorium, every piece of percussion needs to exist loaded basically 1 at a time. And every piano in Corthell has to be carried up the stairs."

On Tuesday, USM appear it has received a $5 1000000 gift from the Crewe Foundation to support construction of a futurity Heart for the Arts on the Portland campus, which would include both a recital hall and visual art gallery. Construction of the single-story building could begin in 2023, with a construction upkeep of $38 million-$forty million depending on final blueprint and material costs, said USM President Glenn Cummings. It'south the largest souvenir always given by the Crewe Foundation, and amidst the largest gifts the academy has received.

An architectural concept of the performance hall in a potential arts eye on USM's Portland campus.

The Crewe Foundation celebrates the legacy of the late songwriter and producer Bob Crewe. His brother Dan Crewe, who lives in Cumberland and co-founded the foundation, has been an ardent supporter of the USM School of Music since moving to Maine in 1991. Several years ago, the foundation pledged $3 meg for an arts middle on the Gorham campus, merely withdrew that funding when the projection fell through.

The new arts center is notwithstanding in the early planning stages, and must be authorized by the University of Maine Arrangement trustees, every bit well equally the metropolis of Portland. Construction is contingent on connected fundraising, Cummings said. Information technology is part of a primary program for the Portland campus that includes a $100 million dorm and pupil center currently under construction.

"Nosotros are hoping Dan's gift will motivate, inspire and excite others to move frontwards then nosotros can achieve our goal," Cummings said.

Every bit envisioned now, the arts center would include a 200-seat recital hall, rehearsal rooms and studios, also as an art gallery and the home of the Kate Cheney Chappell Center for Books Arts. The arts centre, if congenital, would be between Bedford and Falmouth streets.

An architect's rendering of the art gallery in the Heart for the Arts.

Dan Crewe said he has been "blown away" by the quality of musicians at the School of Music and has tried to enhance the program past investing in scholarships and other programs. But he said Corthell Hall, which is on the Gorham campus, was inadequate for the quality of the USM arts programs, and that their consistent success "is a recognition of excellence in the face of absurd lack. I don't desire to make it sound too dramatic, but information technology's incredible what they pull off and what they are able to do consistently. It's a big issue. All of the programs involved in the arts writ large have been trying to subsist in the aforementioned space for too long. It's been a juggling human action, and they deserve better."

A Chinese snow lilac in front of Corthell Hall in the arboretum at USM's Gorham campus in 2004. Staff photo by Jack Milton

Kaschub said the School of Music could nearly double its enrollment by moving most of its programming to Portland. It has nigh 150 students now.

"Nosotros are in many means USM's all-time-kept secret considering of our location," he said. "We accept a great many fans who come out to Gorham to see our stuff and have followed us for years, but it'due south going to be easier to become a fan of the USM School of Music when we are in Portland. It will be easier to recruit students. We want to make this a destination identify."

The USM School of Music offers 14 degree and certificate programs and hosts at least 12 performance ensembles each semester.

"Our graduates have gone on to win Grammy Awards, perform at the Metropolitan Opera, attract hundreds of thousands of followers on YouTube as music educators and influencers, and serve in elite national music ensembles," Cummings said in a statement. "In fact, School of Music alumni have won the Maine Outstanding New Music Educator of the Twelvemonth Accolade every year for the past v directly years."

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