Facilities
The Townsend School of Music on the Macon Campus offers undergraduate and graduate professional music studies in a comprehensive university environment. The School is nationally recognized for its outstanding faculty, award-winning students and nationally recognized performance ensembles.
Facilities
McCorkle Music Building
The McCorkle Music Building is located on Mercer’s Macon campus. This building was made possible by the generous gift of Allan and Rosemary McCorkle, and was dedicated in 2002. Ten of history’s greatest composers are immortalized in friezes lining the building’s exterior: Americans Aaron Copland, Charles Ives, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington and Lowell Mason, and Europeans Igor Stravinsky, Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johann Sebastian Bach and Nadia Boulanger. The $7 million facility spans 28,000 square feet and contains two large ensemble rehearsal rooms with recording capability, 16 practice rooms, a computer lab, classrooms, keyboard lab and a beautiful 200-seat recital hall.
Neva Langley Fickling Hall
The Neva Langley Fickling Hall is a beautifully intimate 200-seat venue. Considered one of the best performance centers in the Southeast, the hall offers state-of-the-art acoustics and a superb performance space designed to support the highest caliber of musical events, including recitals, operas, choral and vocal presentations, instrumental works and jazz ensembles. Among its outstanding features are a Richards, Fowkes & Co. pipe organ and professional recording and multimedia equipment.
Newton Chapel
Formerly Tatnall Square Baptist Church, Newton Hall (Chapel) was dedicated in honor of Dr. Louie D. Newton in 1978. In 1983, the Plunkett-Sewell family commissioned a Holtkamp pipe organ, specially designed for the Chapel. The 52-rank Tracker instrument is one of the largest organs of its kind on the eastern seaboard, establishing Mercer as a center for organ performance and teaching.
The Piedmont Grand Opera House
The Piedmont Grand Opera House is a 1,030 seat performing arts center that offers a full line of quality production equipment, experienced marketing services, a knowledgeable technical crew, and a professionally-run box office.
The Bell House
In November 2012, the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation announced a $1.5 million grant to the University to fund renovation efforts to create the new home of the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings in the Bell House. The newly renovated space is perfectly suited to accommodate the Center’s enrollment limit of 26 students, with dedicated practice rooms and teaching spaces on the second floor, and a 60-seat performance hall on the first floor. Center Founder Robert McDuffie calls the Bell House “a magical and historical venue. It will be an inspirational home for the talented students of the Center as they continue their journey to becoming complete artists. The combination of classical music and the beauty of the Bell House will be a wonderful addition to Macon’s historic district.”
Mercer Music at Capricorn
Mercer Music at Capricorn is a multi-purpose music venue in downtown Macon whose mission is to leverage Macon’s music heritage to create Macon’s music future. The nearly 20,000-square-foot complex includes Capricorn Sound Studios, with two state-of-the-art commercial studios encompassing the historic Studio A where bands such as the Allman Brothers, Marshall Tucker, Charlie Daniels and others recorded in the heyday of Capricorn Records, and a new, larger Studio B that is suitable for larger-scale recording, as well as concerts and special events. The studios are supported by a control room equipped with an analog, 40-channel API 2448 that was custom-built for Capricorn, as well as isolation booths and production suites.