Instruction

The Conservatory’s main teaching building has 40 studios and 10 classrooms. Private instruction, ensemble coaching, and classroom instruction take place here. The building also houses offices of faculty members and the Conservatory deans, in addition to studios for TIMARA (Technology in Music and the Related Arts). Minoru Yamasaki designed Bibbins Hall in 1963 in a style that closely resembles his later design of the former World Trade Center in New York City.

Jazz students and faculty will join their classical counterparts when this building opens early in 2010. Now under construction, the Litoff Building features a third-story, glass-walled, cantilevered section that will reach across to the main Conservatory complex. The building is named in memory of New York jazz impresario Phyllis Litoff, whose close friend Stewart Kohl '77 and his wife, Donna, are major donors to the $22 million project. In addition to jazz studies, the facility will house the music history and music theory departments. It will be the world's first music facility to earn a gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification.

Ensemble practice and classroom facilities for the jazz studies department are located in the Hales Gymnasium complex. Many students use the adjacent Cat in the Cream Coffeehouse for solo and small ensemble jazz performances, which draw appreciative audiences. This facility will be replaced by the Phyllis Litoff Building, which is slated to open in the fall semester of 2009 and is adjacent to the Conservatory.