Nazareth to unveil $15.5M Jane and Laurence Glazer Music Performance Center

Nazareth College will unveil its 550-seat music performance center, named in honor of entrepreneurs Jane and Laurence Glazer, next month.

Designed for the acoustics of large instrument ensembles, the $15.5 million Jane and Laurence Glazer Music Performance Center is located adjacent to the Nazareth College Arts Center. The project was funded by the Jane and Laurence Glazer Charitable Trust by the Glazers’ children, in memory of their parents. In addition to many other private donations, the project also received a total of $1.5 million in support from Sen.Rich Funke and Empire State Development through the Regional Economic Development Council.

The hall will serve as the rehearsal and performance home of the Nazareth Department of Music, whose students represent nearly 20 percent of the total Nazareth College student body. For the past four years, the Department of Music has enrolled the second-highest number of new students at Nazareth. The new music hall will enable the college to accommodate those students who want to pursue careers in music performance, music education, music therapy, and music business.

“Jane and Larry Glazer were visionaries for building a better Rochester,” said Nazareth President Daan Braveman. “Similarly the college is committed to the community, and indeed everything we do at Nazareth serves not only our students but also the community at large. The Glazer Music Performance Center will be the very best state-of-the-art music venue and will be a vital new asset in our region.”

The center’s main performance space, the Rose Marie and John Beston Hall, is named in honor of Dr. Rose Marie Beston who served as Nazareth’s seventh president from 1984-1998.

The new hall’s stage is twice as large as the college’s existing Linehan Chapel stage and is the same size as the stage of Carnegie Hall, enabling more musicians to perform together and to allow richer collaborations amongst students and the community. In addition, an LED green lighting rig provides state-of-the art lighting that is environmentally friendly. Rochester firm SWBR designed the space.