Center offers experience, culture
Director notes Lied benefits for students
On behalf of the Lied Center for
Performing Arts staff, I welcome the
opportunity to respond to Jim Hanna’s
column (Daily Nebraskan, Nov. 19).
While Mr. Hanna addressed a num
ber of issues which are not related to
the Lied (e.g., the removal of Ar
turo’s Restaurant was a part of city
redevelopment which had absolutely
nothing to do with the Lied Center), I
would like to particularly address the
true merits of the Lied Center for the
siudents of this campus. Before doing
so, I would like to stress that at no
time did Mr. Hanna contact me, or
any of my staff, for information or
factual verification.
The Lied Center is proving itself
to be an outstanding facility for pre
senting world class artists. Unsolic
ited comments from artists include:
“One of the great halls. It really has
incredible acoustics.” (Pianist Van
Clibum), “A great hall, one of the
finest new halls I have played in.”
(Violinist Isaac Stem), “The audi
ences are good, the halls are wonder
ful, maybe we should move.” (Ric
cardo Muti, music director of the
Philadelphia Orchestra) and “A beau
tiful building.” (Doc Severinsen).
Similarly, we were very pleased
that the production staff “Les Miser
ables,” the largest production now on
tour, loved the size and accessibility
of the Lied Center. They found the
backstage and shop excellent in all
aspects, and, indeed, those areas have
proved wonderful for the construc
tion of sets by and for students, for
productions in Kimball Hall, the
Howell Theatre and the Johnny Car
son Theatre.
The Lied Center is committed to
serving UNL students educationally.
The Lied Center’s role and mission
statement and programming philoso
phy clearly stipulate that we are to
provide this campus with a wide vari
ety of arts and entertainment experi
ences ol the highest caliber. Any event
that does not meet these standards
will not appear on the Lied Center
stage.
The Lied is an excellent training
laboratory for students especially
interested in technical aspects.
We provide space for UNL dance
classes and for music students to
rehearse the opera production.
Students are centrally involved in
productions produced by UNL’s
Theatre Arts and Dance Department
and School of Music, such as “A
Christmas Carol” and “Don Giovanni.”
In addition to the extensive contribu
tion of facilities and staff time, the
Lied Center is a financial partner with
the academic units. We have taken,
and will continue to take, a successful
role in generating private support for
these activities.
Among others, the Lied Center
has supported academic uses for per
formances, such as the UNL March
ing Band, School of Music Choral
activities, the Nebraska Music Edu
cators Association convention and the
Nebraska Repertory Theatre.
Students also become involved in
the Nebraska Repertory Theatre’s
program, which is in residence in the
Johnny Carson Theater for several
months during the summer.
We empioy UNL students in our
administrative offices, box office,
backstage and house operations and
encourage students to become involved
as volunteers.
The Lied Center offers excellent
opportunities for students to enjoy
world-class performances. We are
pleased to be able to offer half-price
tickets to UNL students. Because of
our desire to attract student audiences,
we have negotiated away advanta
geous items in other areas of artists’
contracts to allow for those types of
discounts. In addition to contract
negotiations, we spend a significant
amount of time finding other sources
of funding and underwriting to help
subsidize these prices.
We designed a student series, that
consists of events that have a particu
lar appeal to students. This series is
Lionel Hampton, The Playboy of the
Western World, Kronos Quartet,
Branford Marsalis and Paul Dresher’s
“Pioneer.” The entire series could be
purchased for $30, which is $6 per
event! We thought this was extremely
affordable for students, considering
current local movie ticket prices.
The Lied Center recognizes the
vital importance of student input and
representation.
The president of AS UN sits on the
Lied Center Advisory Board to repre
sent student interests.
We are continuing to work with
the University Program Council’s
Kimball/Lied Performing Arts Com
mittee (KLPAC), a student organiza
tion, to present programming that fits
students’ interests and then to design
targeted approaches to marketing those
events to the student population. One
example of this is a series of reasona
bly priced events staged in the Johnny
Carson Theater beginning next fall.
KLPAC is taking a leadership role in
marketing this series, which may
include extremely attractive dinner
and performance packages for stu
dents.
Thank you very much for allowing
me to present these Lied Center facts
and provide a perspective for your
readers on the truly important role the
Lied Center has in the cultural and
educational climate of our campus.
Robert Chumbley
director
Lied Center for Performing Arts
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