Music Performance Theater
Join us on the Music Performance Tour at RIT. This tour will be during the construction phase so please bring hard hats and safety glasses.
Setting the Stage for Performing Arts
With thousands of RIT students involved in performing arts expected in the next few years, plans are moving forward for a performing arts complex that will feature a 750-seat theater to be completed in 2026. The project is intended to provide more venues for the RIT community as well as options for community groups to hold concerts, talks, and other events. The music performance theater will be more than 40,000 square feet, three stories tall and have truck access. It will include two balconies and feature a historic, restored theater pipe organ.
The complex will be built in two phases.
James Yarrington, RIT’s university architect and director of Planning and Design Services, said construction of the first phase—tentatively called the “music performance facility”—is expected to begin in the summer of 2023, with completion expected in 2025. It will be more than 40,000 square feet, three-stories tall and have truck access. The theater is expected to have two balconies and feature a historical restored theater pipe organ.
It will also have costume and scene shops as well as offices. Yarrington said the Rochester area has numerous theaters that can seat a couple hundred audience members, but there are few options for venues that seat between 700 and 1,500 people. By comparison, the Robert F. Panara Theatre in Lyndon Baines Johnson Hall has 440 seats.
The first phase is expected to cost more than $35 million, which is part of RIT’s approved capital bond project. Additional funds will be sought to restore and install the pipe organ.
The second phase, which is funding dependent, will feature an expanded lobby and more than double the size of the building with the 1,500-seat orchestra hall and a stage big enough to accommodate a large philharmonic orchestra, major events, and lectures.
Dinner: The Distillery Restaurant 3010 S Winton Rd, Henrietta, NY 14623