Education and Performance to Share Center Stage at the New Music Center at Indian Hill

State-of-the-art building with Music School, 1,000-seat Concert Hall, and 300-seat Recital Hall
will enable more education and performance opportunities for students, provide a permanent home for the Orchestra of Indian Hill and Indian Hill Music’s professional concert series, and enhance the cultural offerings of the region

Opening slated for organization’s 35^th anniversary in 2020

Groton, MA – Susan Randazzo, Executive Director of Indian Hill Music, announced this morning that construction is underway for Indian Hill Music’s new home to be located on Old Ayer Road in Groton, MA, overlooking the non-profit organization’s landmark namesake, Indian Hill. The new center will be the permanent home of Indian Hill Music, one of only a small group of non-profit organizations nationwide that encompass a community music school, professional orchestra, professional concert series, and community outreach programs. Indian Hill Music’s future home -- a natural evolution in the growth of the organization -- will be a world-class education and performance center with a concert experience second to none, as well as educational and outreach programs designed to make music accessible to all.

The 70-member professional Orchestra of Indian Hill, under the direction of Artistic Director and Conductor Bruce Hangen, will have as its home a stunning 1,000 seat concert hall with adjustable acoustics and a flexible stage, which opens to lawn seating for an additional 1,300 audience members. “The new concert hall represents an incredible opening to a whole new world of programming for the Orchestra,” said Maestro Hangen, “including guest artists of both classical and pops persuasions, repertoire with variable formats, and more space for our audience to enjoy a truly symphonic experience. It will be an extraordinary addition to Massachusetts' cultural scene.”
 

Indian Hill Music School has filled the area’s need for quality music education for over 30 years, providing instruction in 30 instruments and voice to over 1,300 students of all ages, abilities and musical interests. Indian Hill Music’s new home will bring much needed acoustically isolated rehearsal spaces and teaching studios as well as a 300-seat recital hall.

Indian Hill Music is also renowned for forging collaborative partnerships throughout the region, including successful relationships with public schools to build their instrumental music programs.

“This project fulfills a long-held dream to bring together all of Indian Hill Music’s programs under one roof and to fully integrate Indian Hill Music’s mission of teaching, performing, and giving music generously,” stated Ms. Randazzo. “The new Music Center at Indian Hill will be a place where we intentionally and wholeheartedly bring people together to share the joy of music in an uplifting and inspiring natural setting.”

Concert-goers can look forward to hearing live, professional performances by prominent guest artists in diverse musical genres. Comfortable and open gathering spaces, both inside and outside the new building, are designed to enhance the educational and social connections among Music School students, families, faculty, audiences, and musicians. A café and dining room, along with adequate parking, hidden from street view, have also been incorporated onsite.

The new center is designed by Cambridge-based Epstein Joslin Architects, who lead a world-renowned team of experts in 23 disciplines. Epstein Joslin (who also designed the Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport, MA), have designed a landmark center for Indian Hill Music that will evoke the feeling of a light-filled music and nature retreat. The design connects the building to the natural beauty of the Groton landscape, and takes advantage of the inspiring vistas in the 110-acre site, which includes 70 acres of agricultural land. Included in the center’s two-story design are materials native to the agrarian landscape, including wood, stone, and metal. The project’s sound quality is overseen by the team’s pioneering acousticians Carl Giegold of Threshold Acoustics with Lawrence Kirkegaard of LKAcoustics, both of whom have a long history with Epstein Joslin that includes Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood and the Music Center at Strathmore, second home of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

Lisa Fiorentino, Indian Hill Music’s Chief Operating Officer, commented, “As a gathering place for community members and musicians alike, the new Music Center at Indian Hill will be like nothing else in the region. With a diverse range of year-round performance offerings in numerous genres, a gorgeous setting, beautifully designed and acoustically sound performance spaces, and an easily accessible location, not only will our new home have broad community appeal, but it is sure to become a destination for music lovers across the region.”

Indian Hill Music

Founded in 1985, Indian Hill Music is a thriving non-profit regional center for music education and performance located in picturesque Central Massachusetts and serving 79 communities. Through the integration of the music school, the professional performance series, and a commitment to giving music to the community, Indian Hill Music fulfills its mission to share the transformative power of music through teaching and performing, and giving music generously when there is need.

Indian Hill Music offers private and group instruction in classical, contemporary, jazz, rock, pop, folk, Irish traditional, Broadway, opera, and early music, along with an extensive array of workshops and lectures, masterclasses with guest artists, and summer programs. Student performing ensembles include the Indian Hill Music Youth Orchestra, the New England Flute Orchestra of Indian Hill, and the Indian Hill Big Band, which provide students with high-quality training and opportunities to collaborate and share music in the community.

Indian Hill Music’s professional performance season is anchored by concerts of the 70-member Orchestra of Indian Hill, the region’s premier professional symphony orchestra, led by Artistic Director and Conductor, Bruce Hangen. Indian Hill Music also presents live performances by music school faculty, Orchestra of Indian Hill musicians, and other acclaimed guest artists in our Chamber Music Series, Jazz and Contemporary Series, and the acclaimed Kalliroscope Gallery Chamber series.

Biographies of Indian Hill Music’s architectural and acoustic team members are attached. Images copyright Epstein Joslin Architects are attached. Click here to download.

To learn more about Indian Hill Music’s educational offerings, community outreach programs, and the organization’s history, please visit http://www.indianhillmusic.org/

To learn more about Indian Hill Music’s upcoming performances, please visit http://www.indianhillmusic.org/concerts/index.html