St. Norbert College Announces Dedication of New Dudley Birder Hall

Facebook / Tweet

From St. Norbert College, January 25, 2013
by Mike Counter, mike.counter@snc.edu, 920-403-3089

For over 50 years, Dudley Birder has shared his time and talents with northeast Wisconsin. Now the "Music Man," as he's affectionately known, will have his name attached to a building equally dear to local hearts: De Pere's St. Boniface Church.

The completely renovated building, located on the corner of Grant and Fourth streets, will be dedicated as Dudley Birder Hall at noon on Thursday, Feb. 14. This is an invite-only event, but the media is welcome to attend.

A concert open to the public celebrating the dedication will be held that evening at 7:30 in the Walter Theatre, Abbot Pennings Hall of Fine Arts on the St. Norbert College campus.
The public concert will feature the Dudley Birder Chorale of St. Norbert College, the St. Norbert College Chamber Singers and the St. Norbert College Concert Choirs.
Tickets for the concert are $15.00, available at the St. Norbert College Box Office, or online at http://tickets.snc.edu/s513, or by calling 920-403-3950.
"This is a wonderful tribute to Dudley Birder and all he has meant to St. Norbert College and, really, the entire community," said St. Norbert College President Thomas Kunkel. "For more than half a century he has taught and influenced countless students and touched the lives of everyone in this region who loves music and musical theater. And since so much of his work has been devoted to sacred music, we think it is especially apt that the newest incarnation of this grand old church will be called Dudley Birder Hall."

The $1.7 million project, supported by donors, converted the church into performance space, especially for music. It will hold about 200 seats and will be used for recitals, chamber concerts and public lectures. It will also be used for Dudley Birder Chorale rehearsals. Much of the work involved installing professionally designed, custom-made acoustical materials for state-of-the-art sound quality.

Dudley Birder joined the St. Norbert College music faculty in 1958, and over the past five decades he has developed and led musical initiatives that have brought together the campus and local communities. More history on Dudley Birder can be found at http://www.snc.edu/birderchorale/history.html.