New Lot on Life for Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall

Historical photo of an opera rehearsal on the stage of Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall

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.

In partnership with the Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts, and Facilities Management, the department made a number of critical safety updates to the hall in 2018 and 2019. About 20 panels of stage drapery, which had been initially installed in the early to mid 1990s, were fully replaced with all new, custom drapes from LA-based company Sew What. Not only was this a long-overdue cosmetic update but these new IFR (Inherently Flame Retardant) curtains reduce the risk of fire significantly, and with proper care and regular testing, they will maintain their flame retardancy for the lifetime of the fabric. Additionally, the old safety net over the orchestra pit, originally installed in the mid ‘70s, was replaced with a new, custom net from In-Cord. This state-of-the-art net ensures that rare accidental trips or falls into the pit are not cause of serious injury or worse.

Along with other lighting projects detailed below, the ambient lighting and safety lighting in the hall was improved greatly by adding LED strip lighting on the aisles in the house. This project is thanks to a partnership with Facilities Management and the Department of Environmental Health and Safety.

In tandem with addressing safety items, the production team also tackled some of the functional concerns in the venue. Most of these projects were funded through grant-writing and partnerships with Facilities Management and the Department of Instructional Development, which oversees inclassroom technology.

In the summer of 2019, the old and severely worn masonite that covered the stage floor was demolished and replaced with over 100 new sheets of MDF (fiberboard) to cover the 3,600 square feet of stage. This necessary refresh was long overdue—the decades-old masonite was decaying, chipping, and separating causing unevenness, tripping hazards, and eye sores. The demolition and installation was done completely in-house by department staff working long hours and saving the department significant labor costs.

As of 2021, two large-scale lighting efforts are also underway. The goal of each of these projects is two-fold: modernizing control systems and improving lighting by installing LED fixtures, thereby reducing energy usage by 70%–80% and creating a greener and more energy efficient facility.

First, as of January 2021, Facilities Management has begun installation of new LED house lights, replacing the old and inefficient halogen lamps and revitalizing the seating area while also introducing more flexible lighting control. As a lecture hall, the low lighting had historically been problematic for students trying to write or take written tests. The new, brighter house lights will address that issue with the added benefit of lower energy consumption and more consistent and controllable audience lighting for department productions.

Second, lights used to illuminate the stage are also being transitioned to LEDs. With generous funding from a TGIF (The Green Initiative Fund) grant, the department kicked off the first of a multiyear, multi-phase plan to replace or retrofit the over 170 theatrical lighting fixtures with their LED counterparts. This phase, focused on replacing lights most frequently used and those that are rapidly falling into disrepair, will be completed early in 2021 and is calculated to reduce use by 78% or by 8,000 kWh annually. The stage lighting renovation has an added benefit of reducing risk of fire from the hot, high-wattage halogen lamps by utilizing low-wattage and cool running LEDs.

Turning to sound, a noticeable technological gap has been present in the hall since its inception—a permanent, professional sound system. Hosting dozens of events requiring a sound system including large ensemble performances from the Middle East Ensemble and the Jazz Big Band, the lack of a proper sound system meant that a temporary system needed to be assembled from the ground up by concert hall staff each time. The equipment used for this temporary sound system had become outdated long ago and did not adequately serve the needs of ensembles and presenters. For instructional use, the decades-old single speaker installed at the top of the proscenium had become overused and the sound rendered less and less clear with each passing year. With grant funding from a proposal to Letters & Science IT’s Collaborate program, the Department of Music partnered with Instructional Development while designing the new state-of-the art system so that the major use cases—instruction and performance—could be seamlessly integrated. The new system features two 15” Martin CDD-Live “main” speakers and two 18” Martin SXC subwoofers all connected via highly shielded Cat6 ethernet cable and controlled by the industry standard DANTE protocol for sending high volumes of signal and control information without the need for excessive cabling.

Finally, in 2020, Instructional Development simultaneously launched their own initiative to update instructional technology in the hall. Completed in the Fall, the overhaul features a new lectern outfitted with a new computer and easy-to-use current multimedia ports, hookups, and a crestron control system to accommodate all presentation needs. In addition, the old large projector was replaced with a new high-resolution unit.

As the department moves toward the completion of many of the functionality and safety projects, they now set their sights on cosmetic updates and repairs. These projects will surely be numerous and will vary in size and scope—from replacing house seating to repairing chipped paint.

Of course, as of this writing, the COVID-19 global pandemic rages on and, with it, financial hardship grows. Without the normal income generated from ticket sales and facility rentals, the Department of Music finds itself in a uniquely difficult financial position, the likes of which it has not seen before. While recovery from the pandemic will surely delay these efforts, department staff and faculty are hopeful that, with the support of its community and the resurgence of live performance, the improvement of this beloved space has only just begun.

- Dr. Anthony Garcia