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Bales Organ Recital Hall is the pride of the University's organ and church music division
Bales Recital Hall, located in the Lied Center, houses an organ that draws musicians from all over the world.
Andrea Ringgenberg/KANSAN
COURTNEY BIERMAN
@courtbierman
The Lied Center is home to one of the finest organ recital halls in the world. Past the doors of the main auditorium and through the alcove at the end of the hall is the Dane and Polly Bales Organ Recital Hall, the centerpiece of the University's organ and church music division.
The instrument sits in an elaborate wooden case designed by Peter G. Thompson, former University dean of fine arts. Thompson also designed the hall's stained glass windows. Three panels of intricate glass, the middle one stretching 37 feet tall, sit opposite the organ.
In terms of acoustics, the walls are two-foot-thick reinforced concrete. The plaster on top of the concrete is uneven. This is meant to emulate the acoustical properties of stone. The result is a six or seven second reverberation time.
"Most of the organ music throughout history was composed for spaces that were very reverberant like this, but in America there are very few places like this," said James Higdon, director of the University's organ and church music division.
Higdon said what makes
Bales Recital Hall unique is that it was constructed at the same time as its organ. It's more common for either the instrument to be built and then placed in a preexisting space or for a building to be constructed for a completed organ.
We are so fortunate here that we have not only an incredible instrument but an incredible room to house that instrument."
Katherine Burchfield Organist
"Other universities have organ halls, but this was built in a different way," Higdon said.
Organist Katherine Burchfield said Bales Recital Hall was one of the primary reasons she chose the University to pursue her doctoral degree in organ.
"We are so fortunate here that we have not only an incredible instrument but an incredible room to house that instrument," Burchfield said.
Burchfield is one of almost 50 University students who take organ lessons through the School of Music. Higdon said any student can sign up for organ lessons if they're interested, but it's best if they have basic piano skills.
Despite being home to only a few dozen students, the University's organ and church music program is one of the largest in the country. Burchfield said most people react with surprise when she says she's an organist, because her instrument is so uncommon.
"Mostly the reactions I get are 'Oh, wow that's cool. What are you going to do with that? Teach?" Burchfield said.
Bales Recital Hall took nearly 10 years to complete. When plans to build the Lied Center began, Higdon and Thompson proposed that the new performing arts center include an organ recital hall. There were already organs on campus - Murphy Hall had a few small practice instruments - and there was even an organ in the old Hoch Auditorium before a fire destroyed it in 1991. But Higdon and Thompson saw an opportunity to do something grand for organ students.
"[Organ performance was] one of our best programs here, without question," Thompson said. "[We have] a lot of graduate students, students who go on and do very well."
University graduates Dane and Polly Bales made the hall possible. The couple were business owners who gave more than $4 million to the University. They supported the School of Medicine, the Dole Institute of Politics (Polly's Pond in front of the institute is named after Mrs.Bales) and other ventures. Their biggest contribution was more than $1 million donated for the construction
of Bales Recital Hall.
"They really saw this as something that was very important to them," said Dale Seuferling, president of the KU Endowment Association. "Something they could do for the University that the University otherwise might not have or might not be able to achieve, and so it really was something that they viewed as their legacy and their gift to KU."
Today, Bales Recital
Hall hosts acclaimed organists from all over the world. The University will hold the American Guild of Organist's 2017 National Pedagogy Conference next fall, during which three organists from Notre-Dame Cathedral will perform.
"I come to work at a beautiful place. I listen to beautiful music, and that's my job," Higdon said.
- Edited by Cody Schmitz
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