The Oberlin Conservatory of Music has announced that it has opened a new building that will house the school’s Department of Jazz Studies and will also be the home for academic programs in music history and theory. At grand-opening events on April 30 and May 1, Oberlin supporters Stevie Wonder and Bill and Camille Cosby received honorary degrees; other events included a panel discussion on green-building design, screenings of Mo’ Better Blues and ‘Round Midnight, and a concert on May 1 featuring Stevie Wonder, members of Oberlin’s jazz studies faculty, and Oberlin graduates and students. The Bertram and Judith Kohl Building—formerly known as the Litoff Building—is named in their memory by their son, Oberlin College Trustee Stewart Kohl ’77. The building is part of the Oberlin Conservatory complex, designed by Minoru Yamasaki, and is expected to receive the first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold rating for a facility exclusively dedicated to music. It will house the James and Susan Neumann Jazz Collection of jazz recordings and ephemera and the Frank Kuchirchuk Collection of Jazz Photography.
Photo by Kevin Reeves
Posted May 11, 2010
