Guide to Green Center’s Grand Opening

Interior of the Green Music Center at Sonoma State University.

For the past 15 years, the dream of a world-class classical-music hall has slowly taken shape on the northeast corner of the Sonoma State University campus in Rohnert Park.

View the timeline of the Green Music Center

In the past few weeks, the pace has quickened at the university as workers planted mature trees, carved out terraces on the south lawn and put the finishing touches on the $120 million Weill Hall, the crown jewel of SSU’s Green Music Center.

This weekend, the doors to Weill Hall will swing open, at last, for the much-anticipated Grand Opening weekend.

Festivities include four concerts spanning the disparate heights of the classical and bluegrass worlds, plus a sunrise choral concert and an historic Santa Rosa Symphony performance. A fireworks show on Saturday night and a downhome barbecue on Sunday afternoon round out the celebration.

Joan and Sandy Weill donated $12 million to the Green Music Center on the SSU campus to complete the Joan and Sanford J. Weill Hall. (John Burgess/PD)

The idea for the hall first took root in the early ‘90s, when Telecom entrepreneur Don Green and his wife, Maureen, joined one of the university’s choirs. The couple launched the campaign for an on-campus, choral venue with a $10 million gift in 1996-1997.

With input from SSU President Ruben Arminana and his wife Marne Olson, the vision expanded over the years, taking form as a shoebox-shaped concert hall inspired by Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood in Lenox, Mass. In 2000, the Santa Rosa Symphony signed on as a partner and pitched in to help with the capital campaign.

New York philanthropists Joan and Sandy Weill, who bought a home in Sonoma in 2010, helped the hall reach completion in 2011 with a record-setting $12 million gift, ensuring its grand opening this weekend.

Along the way, hundreds of community members have also contributed monetary gifts, large and small, to the capital campaign, creating a huge upswelling of support for the performing arts in Sonoma County.

For those holding tickets to concerts planned for this weekend’s Grand Opening, here is a user’s guide to help make your experience more harmonious and less impromptu.

Some of this information will also help while attending concerts during the upcoming 2012-2013 season at Weill Hall, including 20 concerts presented by SSU’s Mastercard Performance Series, 25 concerts by the Santa Rosa Symphony, four concerts by the San Francisco Symphony, a student-centered series by On Campus Presents and student performances by the School of Performing Arts.

View the 2012-13 schedule for the Green Music Center.