Performing Arts Facilities
The Berman Student Center contains a 200 seat performance space, a dedicated music rehearsal room for large ensembles, with a recording console, and a percussion practice studio. The Center also houses a modern dance studio with mirrored walls and dressing facilities with showers. The performance space has professional lighting and sound facilities and a digital projection system. The space is used for lectures, performances, and concerts by campus performing groups, including the Manhattanville Wind and Jazz Ensembles, Dance & Theatre performers, faculty artists, and Musical Theatre performance groups, as well as visiting artists.
Brownson Hall includes facilities for staging productions of the Music and the Dance & Theatre Departments, as well. The Little Theatre, a 125 – seat performing space is equipped with modern lighting and sound equipment. Costume and scene shops and storage areas are adjacent. The Experimental Theatre, a flexible black box space is located in the basement of Founders Hall.
The Music Building, adjacent to Brownson Hall, includes: two “smart” classrooms; a music theory studio classroom; Pius X Hall, an acoustically superior 160 – seat auditorium; ample music studios and practice rooms; an electronic music laboratory with computer workstations and class piano laboratory; and a sound-proofed audio recording studio for chamber ensembles. Pius X Hall has a high quality projection system and is wired to the studio control room for recording of larger groups. The Hall is the venue for solo and chamber recitals by the Music Department and serves as a rehearsal space. The annual Holiday Concert by the College Chorus is presented in the O’Byrne Chapel, which also houses a high quality pipe organ.
A modern dance studio with mirrored walls is located in the Kennedy Building. Dressing facilities with showers are adjacent to the studios. An annual Shakespeare production takes place in the West Room, the great hall of Reid Castle. Departmental productions, as well as productions by student organizations, such as the Dance Ensemble, Minds in Motion and Player’s Guild, perform in these spaces, as well as in various site-specific areas around the campus. The West Room also is the venue for the Manhattanville College-Community Orchestra, Cabaret shows and the College Chorus Spring Concert. Participation in performing arts events on campus is open to all students.