Welcome to the Director’s Corner!
Dear friends in song,
On Monday, April 19 I shared some information with all of our PMO students that will affect them beginning in August. After a visit to PMO this fall, President Córdova decided that our current home in the Elliott Hall of Music is unsafe for students to continue to have rehearsals and gatherings. Effective July 1, we will begin moving our rehearsal rooms and musical director offices to University Church. This move will be temporary until we move into our new home, Bailey Hall. All ensembles at PMO will be required to rehearse in University Church and here is where we will be rehearsing:
• Glee Club, University Choir, Heart & Soul, AC3: Second Floor Upper Sanctuary
• Purduettes: Basement large classroom
• Purdue Bells: Basement smaller classroom
Each ensemble will have a large space to rehearse and we will also have two additional large rehearsal spaces that we can use when we gather for Christmas Show rehearsals, etc. In addition, our musical directors will be relocating their offices to University Church.
Our new men and new women weekend (before Glee Club and Purduette camp) will also take place at U-Church before both ensembles depart for camp.
All equipment, with the exception of our bells, will continue to be stored at Elliott Hall in the basement storage room we currently occupy. Loading, unloading and performance departures will continue to be at Elliott until further notice. I, along with the rest of the PMO staff, will continue to be housed in our current office space on the 2nd floor in Elliott.
For decades, PMO has taken a lot of pride in our humble home in the Elliott Hall of Music. While we all recognize there will be challenges with this move and with the facilities at University Church, we also know there are many challenges with our current facility.
If you have any questions about this move, please do not hesitate to contact me. We are working with the university and U-Church to make this as smooth a transition as we can. We are strong and we will continue to exemplify excellence in everything we do.
Bill Griffel
Director, Purdue Musical Organizations