Ithaca College

Ford Hall—The School of Music’s largest performance venue—received an extensive renovation this past summer, with vast improvements to the acoustics, interior design, and functionality.

▶ See the new hall: View the Ford Hall Renovation photo gallery 
▶ Hear the new acoustics: Check out the expanded webcasting schedule
▶ Attend a concert: Visit the School of Music's concert calendar 

The refurbished hall includes an eight-foot stage extension, energy efficient LED lighting, a new projection screen, 644 seats, and beautiful new hardwood interior, comprised of several types of high quality sound diffusion panels.

"What the stained glass windows of a cathedral do with light, the acoustically engineered wood surfaces of our new hall do with sound," School of Music Dean Karl Paulnack said of the new auditorium. "They reflect and diffuse it in countless directions so that instead of having six reflecting surfaces inside this big cube, we have, in effect, hundreds of thousands of reflecting surfaces. The effect is dazzling, both visually and acoustically."

In addition to the natural acoustical improvements, Ford's new sound system--Designed by BSI Production and McCauley Sound--has been completely rebuilt to enhance the events requiring high-fidelity sound fortification.

“The system is the finest permanent installation in the region,” says Brian Dozoretz, manager of Recording Services at the School of Music. “It boasts 56 individual channels built into the stage floor and 30,000 watts of power into 16 individually-aimed speakers that were tuned to the hall, giving every seat in the audience seamless supplement to the onstage/hall acoustics.”

The additional renovation of the sound booth at the back of the hall provides a dedicated classroom and training area for Sound Recording Technology (SRT) students, and includes locally-sourced custom cabling, connected to a state of the art digital console that can be operated from remote tablets and computers anywhere in the hall.

All these improvements will allow for immersive, hands-on training with the precise equipment and experiences our SRT and performing students will find around the world as professionals.

"The hall is now ideal for student recitals as well as large and small ensembles," added Associate Dean David Pacun. "Students can hear each other on stage, and the overall sound is uniform from front to back."

Rededicated at the School of Music’s Convocation this past September, Ford Hall was originally named after Walter Burton Ford, a mathematician and benefactor who also donated the grand baroque-style organ that is a centerpiece of the hall to this day.

Ford Hall’s grand opening was in the fall of 1964, shortly after the South Hill campus was established; it was absorbed by the Whalen Center for Music in 1999, after a major building expansion and renovation.