University Musical Society - Ann Arbor District Library

Auditoria
Hill Auditorium
Standing tall and proud in the heart of
the University of Michigan campus, Hill
Auditorium is associated with the best
performing artists the world has to offer.
Inaugurated at the 20th Annual Ann Arbor
May Festival in 1913, this impressive structure
has served as a showplace for a variety of important
debuts and long relationships throughout
the past 84 years. With acoustics that highlight
everything from the softest notes of vocal
recitalists to the grandeur of the finest orchestras,
Hill Auditorium is known and loved
throughout the world.
Former U-M regent Arthur Hill
bequeathed $200,000 to the University for the
construction of an auditorium for lectures,
concerts and other university events. Then-UMS
President Charles Sink raised an additional
$150,000, and the concert hall opened in 1913
with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performing
Beethoven's
Symphony No. 5.
The auditorium
seated 4,597 when
it first opened; subsequent
renovations,
which increased the
size of the stage to
accommodate both
an orchestra and a
large chorus (1948)
and improved
Hill Auditorium
wheelchair seating
(1995), decreased
the seating capacity to its current 4,163.
Hill Auditorium is slated for renovation.
Developed by Albert Kahn and Associates
(architects of the original concert hall), the
renovation plans include elevators, expanded
bathroom facilities, air conditioning, greater
backstage space, artists' dressing rooms, and
many other improvements and patron conve­
niences.
Rackham Auditorium
Sixty years ago, chamber music concerts in
Ann Arbor were a relative rarity, presented
in an assortment of venues including University
Hall (the precursor to Hill Auditorium), Hill
Auditorium, and Newberry Hall, the current
home of the Kelsey Museum. When Horace
H. Rackham, a Detroit lawyer who believed
strongly in the importance of the study of
human history and human thought, died in
1933, his will established the Horace H.
Rackham and Mary A. Rackham Fund, which
subsequently awarded the University of
Michigan the funds not only to build the
Horace H. Rackham Graduate School which
houses the 1,129-seat Rackham Auditorium,
but also to establish a $4 million endowment
to further the development of graduate studies.
Even more remarkable than the size of the
gift, which is still considered one of the most
ambitious ever given to higher-level education,
is the fact that neither of the Rackhams ever
attended the University of Michigan.
Power Center for the Performing Arts
The Power Center for the Performing Arts
grew out of a realization that the
University of Michigan had no adequate
proscenium-stage theatre for the performing
arts. Hill Auditorium was too massive and
technically limited for most productions, and
the Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre too small. The
Power Center was designed to supply this
missing link in design and seating capacity.
In 1963, Eugene and Sadye Power, together
with their son Philip, wished to make a major
gift to the University, and amidst a list of
University priorities was mentioned "a new
theatre." The Powers were immediately interested,
realizing that state and federal government
were unlikely to provide financial support for
the construction of a new theatre.
The Power Center opened in 1971 with
the world premiere of The Grass Harp (based