The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Plans are on song for new music centre at St Andrews University
University has lodged plans with local authority
A bid to create an £8 million music centre in St Andrews where future talent will be nurtured has moved up a scale.
St Andrews University has lodged a planning application for a state-of-theart new home for its music centre, which will host concerts and other events.
If approved, it hopes to begin construction at Queens Terrace, bordering St Mary’s Quadrangle, by the end of the year.
A music centre has been run by the university in the Younger Hall for 25 years, with hundreds of students each year making music part of their degree, but a lack of soundproofing limits activities.
The new centre will include practice, rehearsal and teaching space, a studio, music technology and recording suite and a library, and will be used by the likes of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO).
Last year a competition to design it was won by award-winning architects Flanagan Lawrence.
In its submission to Fife Council, the firm said: “Our plans for the music centre create a suite of spaces to act as a focal point for both the university and the community’s musical activities. Each space is designed to be acoustically excellent, but with flexibility and ease of use in mind.
“The quality of acoustic in these spaces will allow the musical excellence of rehearsals and performances to flourish for students, teachers, performers and audiences alike.”
The university, it said, supported a thriving culture of performing groups and events, including St Andrews Voices Festival, Byre Opera and St Andrews and Fife Community Orchestra, run in collaboration with the SCO.
It added: “The new facility will support musical engagement and complement the Byre Theatre by offering the range of soundproofed spaces needed for practice, individual tuition, academic lectures and ensemble and orchestral rehearsals.”
The centre will be funded entirely through philanthropy with more than £5 million already raised.
The site is currently occupied by temporary buildings and a car park, and it is intended the building will restore the historic quad and complete the neighbouring Bute Building and St Regulus Hall student residence.
The new facility will support musical engagement and complement the Byre Theatre by offering the range of soundproofed spaces needed... FLANAGAN LAWRENCE ARCHITECTS