Newly remodeled Russell Hall has rededication ceremony

The University of Northern Iowa’s School of Music celebrated the rededication and reopening of a newly remodeled Russell Hall on Friday as an audience of students, staff and alumni packed Russell Hall’s Bengtson Auditorium.

“The renovation and new addition to Russell Hall is another milestone in the continued growth and development of the UNI School of Music,” said John Vallentine, director of the School of Music.

The ceremony marked the end of an expansive renovation project which began in 1998 with the School of Music national advisory board meeting on the UNI campus. The board met to discuss the need to expand Russell Hall to accommodate the large number of music students entering the program each year.

“Russell Hall now houses twice as many faculty, and three times as many students as in it did in the 1960s,” said Vallentine.

The original planning for Russell Hall began in 1956. With a budget of $1.155 million construction began. By 1962, Russell Hall was completed. In May 1972, this new music building was named in honor of music professor and then head of the music department Myron E. Russell.

Over the years, Russell Hall has received minor renovations to make the building more energy efficient. However, this recent project was the first major renovation to the building since its original construction in 1959.

“This building represents something much larger. It represents and experience that shaped our lives, and changed us forever,” said alumna Gayle Johns Rose. “What this school represents is so tightly identified with who we are as individuals and who we have become in the world today. ... For it was in these halls and in this very room, that our lives were shaped by the transformative and universal power of music.”

Russell Hall, as well as the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center, provides students with state of the art facilities. The new $10 million renovation to Russell Hall gives students the opportunity to study, practice, perform and record in a technologically-advanced building. This includes a large auditorium, new performance halls, recording studio, new classrooms and rehearsal spaces and a music technology lab.

“With the completion of Russell Hall, our educational facilities are now the best in Iowa, and among the finest in the United States,” Vallentine said.

UNI President Ben Allen also attended the ceremony.

“Today is a great day in the history of UNI,” Allen said. “Russell Hall is the nerve center of this outstanding program. It is an investment in the future. A big source of pride are our UNI School of Music alumni who have been involved in this project since the beginning.”

Speakers shared not only about the significance that the new Russell Hall building will have for the School of Music programs, but also for the high level of teaching the faculty have shown over the years. Professor Angeleita Floyd spoke on this during the ceremony.

“I think the reason that UNI has such a strong school of music is because we have faculty that are dedicated and basically enjoy the teaching aspect and are fine performers, as well,” she said.

A high level of academic success and dedication is shown by students, as well. Senior music major Leslie Aboud spoke at the rededication ceremony.

“We are being provided a state of the art facility in which to learn, practice and perform the art of music,” Aboud said. “This facility now places UNI on a level that matches the best schools in the nation. I would like to say on behalf of all the UNI School of Music students, thank you to everyone who made this renovation possible.”