Historical photo of an opera rehearsal on the stage of Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall
New Lot on Life for Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall
Photo: Gaby Goldberg
By Dr. Anthony Garcia, Production and Events Manager Built in 1969, and named for the famous German soprano, Lotte Lehmann, the Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall at the UC Santa Barbara Department of Music is one of the oldest and largest spaces on the UC Santa Barbara campus. Home to many of the department’s performances, the hall holds a special place in the hearts of the community. An unconventional space, designed for multi-use as a hybrid concert hall, theatrical venue, and lecture hall, Lotte sees an average of 1,500 people on a typical day of instruction and is home to dozens of performances and presentations each year. In recent years, after decades of heavy use and little funding for upkeep, Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall was starting to show its age with functional and cosmetic elements of the facility falling into disrepair. The hall needed to be re-examined with fresh eyes and, as a result, the department began focusing on how to modernize the venue. So, in 2017, a fund-seeking campaign was initiated by the Department of Music’s production team to address facilities issues in Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall. The plan focused on four areas: safety and compliance, deferred maintenance and repair, technical updates, and cosmetic refresh. As of 2021, the campaign is ongoing, but the department is already seeing some of the fruits of those efforts after numerous completed projects. UC Santa Barbara Department of Music | Winter 2021 Newsletter | 15
