1,700-seat multi-purpose facility to be the ‘finest music performance hall on any college campus in the world’

Committed to providing students with access to stages that rival some of the world’s finest, Belmont University announced today a state-of-the-art performing arts center on Belmont Boulevard. The Belmont University Performing Arts Center will house a 1,700-seat multi-purpose theatre, a grand lobby and two contiguous event spaces that can hold more than 900 guests when combined with the lobby. The venue, which will be located between Bernard and Compton Avenue on Belmont Boulevard, is slated to open fall 2021.

Belmont President Dr. Bob Fisher said, “Our goal is to build the finest music performance hall on any college campus in the world, and I couldn’t be more pleased. I have dreamed of the creation of this facility since I first came to Belmont in 2000. Along with the Massey Performing Arts Center, Troutt Theater and McAfee Concert Hall, the addition of this venue completes our campus’s performance facilities, creating the most extensive suite of venues of any other institution of higher education.”

Board Chairman Marty Dickens said, “Our students are just the best, and they deserve the very best.”

Outfitted for both acoustic and amplified sound, the Center’s Performance Hall, referred to as an instrument of its own kind, will adapt to the performances it hosts. Classical concerts, operas, musical theatre performances, theatre productions, dance recitals, commercial showcases and more will be held in the Center’s Performance Hall to accommodate the diverse musical interests and talents of Belmont students. The facility will include a full fly space, wing space, orchestra pit, two forestage lifts, a trap room under the stage and television broadcast capabilities.

In addition to its on-stage features, the facility will have a warm-up room for dance or choral use, various sized dressing rooms, a green room, a scene dock, a loading dock and a green roof to assist with water quality filtration, among other sustainable components as the project will pursue LEED certification.

Belmont Provost Dr. Thomas Burns said, “As we prepare the next generation of musical greats, we must ensure that our students are exposed to some of the world’s best venues. With the creation of this impressive complex, our students will have access to one of the finest. This new performing arts center will serve as an extraordinary training ground, both onstage and backstage, for students in our Colleges of Music & Performing Arts and Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business.”

Nashville-based R.C. Mathews is the contractor, and ESa is the architect for the project.