Holmberg Hall at 100 Jewel of OU campus as active as ever
The Auditorium, as it was called when it was built as part of the University of Oklahoma’s original campus in 1918, has a rich 100-year history and continues to shine in the spotlight. “Holmberg Hall is our jewel. The students attach some special excitement to performing there,” said Mary Margaret Holt, dean of College of Fine Arts. “The ghosts of people who have performed there ... you feel that tradition when you go in.”
As a dance major, Holt performed in operas in the hall. “It was always fun to perform
there because there was a balcony,” she said.
Today’s students share that experience in the 680-seat hall.
“Everyone loves performing there because the intimacy with audience is so delightful,” Holt said. “It’s a bit like a little European opera house and so you have a really strong sense of the audience and strong sense of connection, even to the balcony.”
Skye Singleton, 25, sang her first title role this month in OU’s production of “Lucia di Lammermoor.”
“I love singing high notes and ‘Lucia’ has lots of high notes, so it’s perfect,” said Singleton, a second-year master’s vocal performance major from Norman.
“My voice naturally sits in a higher place than most musical theater pieces are set,” she said. “Opera was love at first try.”
She was determined to leave Oklahoma to study elsewhere, until she met OU voice professor Kim Josephson. His instruction and his experience performing with the Metropolitan Opera won her over — along with Holmberg Hall.
“It’s amazing,” Singleton said. “It’s reminiscent of the wonderful, beautiful opera halls” in Europe.
“Holmberg is a big selling point, a recruiting tool for incoming students,” she said. “Visually, it makes a big impact.”
The experience has been nostalgic for her mom, Debbie Waldron Singleton, who sang the role of Susanna in “The Marriage of Figaro” when she studied voice at OU in the 1970s. She also sang in many choral performances, including with visiting composer and conductor Aaron Copland.
She remembers those times in Holmberg Hall fondly, even though the building was showing its age.
“It was pretty when I was there, but it was musty,” Debbie Singleton said. “I was so excited to be singing opera on a stage. I thought it was wonderful.”
‘A special place on campus’
Audiences have seen more than students on the stage through the decades. Jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong, dancer Martha Graham, violinist Isaac Stern, pianist Van Cliburn, poet William Butler Yeats and U.S. President William Howard Taft are among the many.
Ballet dancers Miguel Terekhov and Yvonne Chateau came as artistsin-residence and founded the School of Dance in 1961. Mezzo-soprano opera singer Marilyn Horne has been a visiting professor at OU for 18 years.
Designed as a recital hall, the building has housed graduation exercises, gubernatorial debates and guest speakers. Sooner Scandals and University Sing are performed in Holmberg Hall each year.
“The hall just has such a special place on campus because of its longevity and because of the variety of events that have taken place there,” Holt said. “Almost every student on campus in any given year has occasion to go into the hall.”
It was renamed Holmberg Hall in 1938 after Fredrik Holmberg, professor of music and first dean of the College of Fine Arts. “He was a mover and shaker,” Holt said. “He made so much progress in terms of the fine arts at OU.”
Decades later it had fallen into serious disrepair.
“We had gotten to the point where some seats were broken, so we had to mark the broken seats that no one should sit in,” Holt said.
The ceiling had been lowered at some point to accommodate heating and air-conditioning equipment, which greatly affected the acoustics. “We had lost that beautiful dome-shaped ceiling that was original to the hall,” Holt said.
In 2002, a renovation began with a $12.2 million grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, plus $5.8 million in university funding. The building was restored to its original luster. A new dance wing was added and practice rooms were renovated. The facility was renamed the Donald W. Reynolds Performing Arts Center.
At the heart was historic Holmberg Hall in all its splendor. Not only was the auditorium restored, but it was expanded to be much more versatile.
The back wall was removed and the stage area was doubled in size. A fly space was added to fly scenery in and out, Holt said. Before that, productions had to be staged and choreographed to fit the limited space.
“Now we have stateof-the art stage equipment — the fly system, lighting system, sound system,” Holt said. “Even though the hall has this beautiful traditional look, the elements are completely contemporary.”
It is crucial for design and technical students to work on the type of equipment they will be working on in the professional world, she said.
And for the audience, attending a performance in the renovated Holmberg Hall is “a very exciting experience,” Holt said.
“It’s a big deal to have a hall on campus in such wonderful shape after a hundred years and have it still as active as ever.”