New venue is built on long musical tradition
Bella Hall will be home to concerts, other arts events
Friday, Mount Royal University hosted a news conference unlike any other. “It’s not very often you’re invited to an outdoor event,” said university president David Docherty, “in a construction zone, in a tent, in December. “So,” he added, “welcome.” For Mount Royal Conservatory director Paul Dornian — and politicians representing every level of government, university officials, students, faculty, artists and one very generous family of major donors — Friday delivered the city’s music community its finest Christmas present ever: the start of construction on Bella Music Hall, a concert hall that, when it is completed about 25 months from now, will be among the city’s finest live music venues.
“I’m ecstatic,” Dornian said at a reception after a news conference that featured Alberta culture minister Heather Klimchuk, Alderman Brian Pincott and newly elected Conservative MP Joan Crockatt, in addition to Docherty, benefactor Don Taylor and construction head John Simpson.
“It’s been 12 years of work,” said Dornian. “It’s been a long road, and it’s very exciting. I think I was most excited the first time I heard the cement mixer start up.”
Docherty said it was fitting for the city to have a new concert hall — in addition to a new conservatory featuring 65 soundproof rehearsal studios — built at Mount Royal, which has a long-honoured tradition of music education.
“The Conservatory has been a cornerstone of teaching at Mount Royal for more than a century,” Docherty said. “More than 6,000 students come to study at the Conservatory every year.
“We will build a haven for students, faculty, community and visiting artists.”
Crockatt said, “arts and culture and learning are absolutely integral to a community.
“At the heart of it,” she added, “the Bella Concert Hall will be a unique venue, with 774 seats.”
“Music was on the curriculum right from the start at Mount Royal,” said Klimchuk.
“This whole remarkable building will highlight the role of music and, by extension, culture in our lives.
“Upon completion,” she said, “The Bella Music Hall will be music to our ears.”
The cost of the project was divided among the federal and provincial governments (each contributing up to $20 million), the City of Calgary ($10.3 million), the university (over $3 million in land and project costs), as well as the Taylor family, which individually contributed $21 million.
That prompted the most heartfelt speech of them all, from Don Taylor.
He told the story of how his grandmother arrived on a train from the east in 1912, got stranded overnight and sat on her suitcase until her husband found her. She worked on the family farm in Barons until the Taylor family lost it in the 1937 depression, whereupon she moved to Calgary and ran a boarding house at 12th Avenue and 6th Street.
“It is with great pride,” he said, “that the Taylor matriarch — Bella — is going to have her name on this concert hall. “I can’t wait for it to open.” For Dornian, the news conference was an opportunity to reflect for a moment on the music scene in Calgary the past few months, which has included the Honens Piano Competition, the world premiere of a new CPO Commission, Afghanistan: Requiem for a Generation and on Thursday night, former Conservatory student Jan Lisiecki performed at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Centre with the New York Philharmonic.
“That’s an exciting moment,” Dornian said.
“It’s a sign of where the whole (Calgary) music community has gotten to.
“Hopefully,” he added, “there will be more milestone moments, too.”