More than 200 people — faculty, administrators, staff, students and community members — gathered for the dedication of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s new Westbrook Music Building on Oct. 1.

“I spent much of my career advocating that the true measure of a building is not how it looks on the day we dedicate it; it’s what happens inside of it for the next 50 years,” Interim Chancellor Katherine S. Ankerson said. “The measure of this one will be the students who discover what they’re capable of here; the faculty who push them; and the performances, recordings and ideas that travel from these rooms to every corner of Nebraska and beyond.”

The event featured additional remarks by Andrew Belser, dean of the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts; Dr. Jeffrey P. Gold, president of the University of Nebraska system; and James Rasser, a senior music major from Papillion, Nebraska. The dedication also included a performance of “Nebraska Fanfare” by the University Singers, under the direction of Peter Eklund, professor of music and director of choral activities.

The new Westbrook Music Building is an $81 million, 103,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility that replaces the former Westbrook, which opened in 1967. It is home to the Glenn Korff School of Music.

The project was made possible by $75 million in support from the Nebraska Legislature through LB 384, a deferred maintenance bill.

Belser said the new building creates opportunities for collaboration and innovation.

“With spaces such as our new recording studio and immersive performance environment, Westbrook creates opportunities for musicians to collaborate with filmmakers, emerging media artists, designers, sound engineers, visual artists and others across our college and university,” he said. “The future of creative work belongs increasingly to people who can move across disciplines, bring different perspectives together and imagine possibilities that none of them could create alone. This building gives our students a place to do exactly that.”

Designed by BNIM of Kansas City and Sinclair Hille Architects of Lincoln, the new building features acoustical design by Kirkegaard Associates. 

Tony Bushard, interim director of the Glenn Korff School of Music, said the new building has energized faculty and staff in the school.

“With ample daylight shining in and plenty of new spaces for students and faculty to gather and create community, it has been a joy to watch faculty and students make themselves at home in the new building,” he said. “It’s very exciting to think about what new kinds of music-making and community engagement will happen in this building.”

Music has been a part of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln since 1894. Westbrook Music Building is named for Arthur E. Westbrook, who served the university as director of the School of Fine Arts, professor of music and chair of the Department of Music from 1938 until his retirement in the 1950s. In 2013, the School of Music was renamed the Glenn Korff School of Music following a transformational $8 million gift to the University of Nebraska Foundation to support the school by University of Nebraska alumnus Glenn Korff, who died in 2013.

Fine and Performing Arts Westbrook Music Building