The performing arts at the Larimer Campus have found a versatile home this semester in newly renovated space in Redcloud Peak. See the image gallery.
“We’re all together, interacting with each other,” Debra Throgmorton, music faculty, says about music, theater, and dance. The building also encourages interaction with other creative arts and design disciplines, too.
The state-of-the-art facilities were designed for many uses.
Performing arts studio
The performing arts studio is shared space for music, theater, and dance students. It’s a dance studio, music rehearsal room, and black box theater. “It’s a fully purposed teaching space,” Debra says. The mirror, barre, and floor are made for dance. The room can accommodate music and choral groups. Drapes can enclose a theater space. The lighting system can be used for teaching technical theater lighting as well as be used to light theater and dance productions. The sound system can be controlled within the studio itself or the control room. There’s even a greenroom for performers and a locker area for storing instruments.
Keyboard/digital studio
The keyboard/digital studio has 18 work stations with 88-key, weighted keyboards and iMac computers. Digital editing software includes Protools, LogicPro, AbletonLive, GarageBand, and AutoTune. For ear training, there’s Auralia, and for music notation, there’s Sibelius and Finale. All are industry-quality products.
Recording studio
The recording studio in its former location was inside a classroom, so students had to work on their projects when the classroom was not in use, mainly on weekends. No longer. The new recording studio has acoustic treatment for a better recording environment. The studio will be available for student and faculty projects.
Private instruction rooms
Three rooms with proper acoustics are set aside for private instruction. One of the rooms can accommodate chamber music and small-ensemble work. Each is patched into the control room for recording. So with the recording studio and the private-instruction rooms, students can be recording four sessions at the same time.
Control room
Yes, the control room. It patches in to the recording studio, the performing arts studio, and the private instruction rooms. In addition to the main control station, there are three student computer work stations. There’s a theater lighting control system, complete with monitor to hit lighting cues during performances.
Space for interaction, collaboration
Outside of the studios and classrooms, students interested in the performing arts or the other creative disciplines in Redcloud Peak can gather in spaces that encourage collaboration and casual conversation. All in all, students have an opportunity in the gathering spaces to find out how versatile they can be.
