Photo: Erik Jepsen/UCSD Guardian

Conrad Prebys Concert Hall

If you know a music lover, the Department of Music at the University of California, San Diego has a gift opportunity that is hard to resist this holiday season.  Just $200 will reserve a named seat in the acoustically perfect Conrad Prebys Concert Hall on the campus of UC San Diego — a unique gift that will honor friends and family for a lifetime.

"The concept of a gift that benefits the community by ensuring UC San Diego can continue to bring top notch musical programming here is a fantastically efficient idea," said Wayne Dernetz, who, with his wife Liz, is a fan and supporter of the new Conrad Prebys Music Center, which includes the concert hall.  "We’ve taken our friends to the Conrad Prebys Concert Hall; I just can't tell you how impressive the acoustics are, in a beautifully aesthetic venue.  When this music support opportunity came up, we wanted to help the campus.  We love the arts, so it was a selfish motive!" 

For a total tax-deductible contribution of $1,000 for each named seat, you can personalize a plaque that will be attached to a seat in one of the best small concert halls in the world.  In addition, your contribution will generate ongoing support for UC San Diego's new Conrad Prebys Music Center.  One holiday gift, twice the impact! The $200 deposit is due by Dec. 31, 2009; the balance can be paid by convenient installments through May 2010.

Barbara Brink, a UC San Diego staff member and contributor to the seat naming initiative, noted, "The Conrad Prebys Music Center is just a wonderful addition to campus. Our students, faculty and community deserve something of that quality.  I feel strongly that giving back to higher education is very valuable. I want to make sure that students will have same education and opportunities as I did when I attended the University of California."

With the state of California budget cuts significantly impacting public universities, private support raised by this initiative will help UC San Diego's world-renowned music department fund essential operational needs that include:

• Graduate fellowships to help the department attract and retain talented students who will become the world’s future composers and performers;
• Piano and equipment maintenance to cover the annual $150,000 expense to keep performance and teaching instruments in top condition; and
• Flexible funding to enable the department of music to respond to innovative ideas, cost-saving opportunities and unexpected funding challenges.

The UC San Diego Department of Music has been recognized worldwide for its commitment to the "new" in composition and computer music. Founded over 40 years ago, the department spans a spectrum of music from classical to contemporary, including jazz, Hindustani, computer and experimental music.  As the West Coast's leading center for education and innovation, the music department attracts students from around the world who wish to study with distinguished faculty.

The Conrad Prebys Music Center — named in honor of local philanthropist Conrad Prebys in recognition of his $9 million in gifts to UC San Diego's Department of Music — opened in May 2009 and quickly gained a reputation as the premier place to create and perform music in San Diego. The music center’s crowning jewel is the world-class, 400-seat Conrad Prebys Concert Hall, designed by LMN Architects of Seattle and Cyril Harris, one of the most respected acoustical engineers in the world.

To participate in this fundraising initiative, please call (858) 534-9097 or visit http://dah.ucsd.edu/giving/MusicCenter.  To give online, simply click on the "Give Now" icon on the site to access the various Arts and Humanities giving opportunities.

About the UC San Diego Department of Music

Founded more than 40 years ago, the UC San Diego Department of Music today spans a spectrum of music from classical to contemporary, including jazz, Hindustani, computer and experimental music. The faculty has included many distinguished composers, performers and scholars who have been recognized with such prestigious awards as the Pulitzer Prize, the MacArthur "Genius" award, Guggenheim Fellowship, the Grawemeyer and Grammy. The department was designed to provide a unique environment in which composers, performers and scholars collaborate and engage with the most vital ideas and newest technologies in order to push the boundaries of contemporary music. Undergraduate and graduate students from the UC San Diego Department of Music have gone on to successful careers in fields ranging from performance, composition, research and education. Please visit  for more information.