Department of Music opens new performance hall on campus

Gamelan performance in the newly renovated Wu Hall on september 8, 2024. Image credit: Grant Kerber

October 10, 2024

Alexander Rony

UC Berkeley’s Department of Music unveiled the new Helen and Thomas Wu Performance Hall in September, following an extensive renovation that was years in the making. The reopened space includes a larger stage, new seats, and state-of-the-art sound, lighting, and digital technology upgrades.

The 100-seat venue occupies a former lecture hall at Morrison Hall, a building that also houses music classrooms, practice rooms, and Berkeley’s storied collection of baroque, classical, gamelan, and other world instruments.

David Milnes, the chair of the Department of Music, noted that campus and the surrounding community needed a smaller, more intimate setting for performances like vocal recitals and chamber music. Already, several institutions have expressed interest in booking the venue for performances.

“It'll be transformative,” said Milnes, who also serves as a professor and the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra’s music director. “There are so many uses for the new hall. It's going to be an excellent place for people from all kinds of disciplines to come and present their work.”

a performance space with rows of seats and a stage

Wu Performance Hall as it neared the end of its construction. Image credit: Grant Kerber

The Helen and Thomas Wu Performance Hall is a beautiful addition to the campus's public outreach efforts, with recitals and performances of jazz, vocals, choral groups, chamber music, Baroque opera productions, and Latin and Chinese music ensembles. The new room will also serve as the principal performance venue for the music department's research partner, the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies, which will present innovative digital audio and video productions.

“We want to establish ourselves as a center for artistic endeavor in all of Northern California,” said Milnes. “We want to be known for our innovative art-making and discussion.”

The renovation is part of a larger effort to provide creative students with modern spaces to hone their artistic skills. Hertz Hall will upgrade its lighting next year and hopefully replace its stage elevator. Bancroft Dance Studio is undergoing its own renovations, with re-sanded floors, repaired windows, and a new water filtration system. Dwinelle Hall’s Durham Studio Theater requires significant work to modify its seating, upgrade its lighting, add new sound systems, and become compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The Department of Music has experienced a tremendous increase in student enrollment since the beginning of the pandemic. Back in 2020, Milnes and other faculty members were worried what the loss of in-person events would mean for the field, but it appears that many young people passed those isolating times by diving deeper into the music they love. Now in college, these students want to hone their music-making skills.

“Our music major’s numbers have doubled and are on the way to being tripled,” reported Milnes. “Kids want to study, play, and perform music. The concert halls are just exploding with their enthusiasm and talent!”

Several years ago, the department reformed its curriculum to include a wider variety of musical topics, appealing to a diverse student body. They expanded offerings in jazz, Latin, and world music, and European classical music is also growing due to continued interest. The Department of Music hosts around 80 concerts a year, on top of the many other musical acts that use UC Berkeley venues like Zellerbach Hall and the Greek Theatre.

Laurene Wu McClain and Charles McClain

Our music major’s numbers have doubled and are on the way to being tripled. Kids want to study, play, and perform music. The concert halls are just exploding with their enthusiasm and talent!

David Milnes, Music Department Chair

I started loving music at a very early period of my life. We always felt that listening to music added to our lives.

Laurene Wu McClain

The Helen and Thomas Wu Performance Hall is named after Laurene Wu McClain’s parents, who fostered Laurene’s love of music. Her father was a prominent piano player in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Her mother would sit on his piano bench and swoon.

“I started loving music at a very early period of my life,” said Wu McClain, an attorney and history professor. “We always felt that listening to music added to our lives. It is a time to relax and use another part of my brain.”

While Wu McClain did not go to live concerts as a Berkeley undergraduate, she has been making up for lost time. She and her husband, Charles, regularly attend Department of Music events. After attending a concert at Hertz Hall, which has a maximum capacity of 678 people, the couple felt the 30-person audience needed a smaller venue better suited for solo performances and new musical genres.

They brought their idea to the department, which identified a classroom, formerly known as the Elkus Room, that could be repurposed. The original room was designed in 1959 and was showing its age. Department staff and faculty were thrilled to make greater use of the space.

The McClain family’s gift to begin the Helen and Thomas Wu Performance Hall’s renovation had another benefit beyond improving the range of campus venues: it supports students from a variety of backgrounds.

“The music department represents a different type of student,” said Wu McClain. “Most of the musicians I've had a chance to meet are double majors. They're in music as well as math or biology. They're people who are highly motivated to find careers while pursuing something they love, which is music. Being in a small group like a baroque ensemble or chorus teaches students skills they can use in the future, like the ability to collaborate.”

Miaad (left) and Albert (right) Bushala stand with their parents and namesakes. Image courtesy of the Bushala family.

Many people are incredibly talented, and we feel honored and fortunate to provide opportunity and a space for them to showcase their hard work, passion, and love for music. We hope our gifts set an example of the importance of investing in music education. If we can spread that message and inspire others along the way, we feel as though we have done our job.

Miaad Bushala, Cal parent

Wu McClain could have easily been referring to Miaad Bushala, a fourth-year business student who attended a performing arts high school in Southern California. Even though she wasn’t pursuing her talents as a singer through her college major, music remained close to her heart.

“Music reminds me of my family, the people most dear to me in the world,” said Bushala. “Music, to me, is the embodiment of the importance of teamwork, collaboration, and having a shared goal and vision. If any of those aspects are amiss, the music doesn’t succeed.”

Though she intends to go into real estate after graduating, Bushala took several classes in the Department of Music. She also co-taught a popular course on Taylor Swift through the student-run DeCal program that examined the singer’s artistic creativity and business acumen.

“I think life is about blending artistry and entrepreneurship: being able to think creatively and spot opportunities others might not be able to see,” said Bushala. “Having a shared goal, treating people with respect, listening to them and finding harmony with them in the same way you would in a band setting are all qualities I’ll be taking with me from my music education into the professional business world.”

Bushala’s parents involve their two children in the family’s philanthropic decisions to remind them of the importance of giving back.

“My parents sat me down and told me that they wished to donate to Berkeley in whatever department I saw fit,” said Bushala. “My background in music and the wonderful experiences I’ve had in my music classes in Berkeley made it a no-brainer that Morrison Hall was the perfect place for the gift.”

Miaad’s parents agreed with her recommendation and sponsored 20 seats in the new performance hall. Attendees in the first few rows of the hall may notice the family’s name on custom plaques. The name recognition is a simple gesture to thank the department’s generous supporters — who can still sponsor additional seats — for enriching Berkeley’s creative community.

“For our family, music means a lot of things,” said Bushala’s mother, who is also named Miaad. “As parents, it brings us closer to our kids, whether going to concerts as a family or watching our kids play their shows. We saw true teamwork, collaboration, and care shared by the students on stage that, as businesspeople, we don’t even always see in the professional world. That, to us, was the best education our children could have gotten.”

The Helen and Thomas Wu Performance Hall is not the first musical venue that Miaad and her husband, Albert, have supported. The couple’s philanthropy extends to the Orange County School of the Arts and the GRAMMY Museum. No strangers to managing complex renovations, the couple is also preparing to open their own performance venue. Taken together, these modern facilities grant burgeoning artists the ability to practice their craft and reach new audiences.

“Many people are incredibly talented, and we feel honored and fortunate to provide opportunity and a space for them to showcase their hard work, passion, and love for music,” said Miaad Bushala, the Cal parent. “We hope our gifts set an example of the importance of investing in music education. If we can spread that message and inspire others along the way, we feel as though we have done our job.”

To support music education and sponsor a seat in the Helen and Thomas Wu Performance Hall, contact Rose Hsu, Director of Development for the Division of Arts & Humanities, at rosehsu@berkeley.edu