'The little Carnegie Hall' Whitefish Middle School's 'phenomenal' performing arts center hosts opening gala
The Whitefish High School Chamber Orchestra, under the guidance of director Jenanne Solberg, performs “Andante Festivo,” composed by Jean Sibelius, to open the inaugural concert Thursday evening in the newly renovated Whitefish Middle School Auditorium and Performing Arts Center. Along with the high-school orchestra, Solberg also directs the Whitefish Middle School orchestra and choir. Jennifer DeMonte/Daily Inter Lake
Amid long-awaited pomp and circumstance, the public on Thursday took in the first performance in the newly renovated $4.7 million Whitefish Middle School Auditorium and Performing Arts Center.
"It's just phenomenal," fundraising co-chairwoman Carol Atkinson said. "I have to keep reminding myself it's a middle-school auditorium."
Whitefish High School and Middle School orchestral, choral and band groups gave the inaugural concert.
Fundraiser John Kramer is likewise pleased with the completed performance hall, considered one of the finest in the Northwest.
"It's turned out to be the little Carnegie Hall we hoped it would be," he said.
The 1938 auditorium was gutted and its transformation to a new performance hall has taken a couple of years.
The theater features 16,000 air-conditioned and handicapped-accessible square feet, a bigger stage with taller fly loft for raising and lowering backdrops, comfortable seating for 490, a high-tech control booth that even novice workers can operate, catwalks and acoustical clouds and a windowed lobby with concessions and ticket booth.
It will be the permanent home for the Alpine Theatre Project and the Glacier Symphony will restart its tradition of Whitefish season performances in the rebuilt auditorium. The facility is being booked at a brisk pace, especially through the end of the year, organizers said.
Although the auditorium is up and running, it's not entirely paid for, Atkinson said.
"The bottom line is that we're still raising money," she said.
The cost of design and construction was $4.7 million; add to that $600,000 in projected interest during the next five years and the cost is $5.3 million. To date, $4,126,000 has been raised, Kramer said, leaving $1.2 million to raise.
All contributors will be noted on a permanent donor wall in the lobby. To contribute, mail pledges or gifts to Middle School Auditorium Renovation Project, Whitefish School District, P.O. Box 4225, Whitefish, MT 59937.
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com