The Russell/Wanlass Performance Hall, formerly known as the Caine Performance Hall, opened in January 2006. It is a 20,000-square-foot building that serves USU, Cache Valley and the Intermountain region. The building is a gift from sisters Manon Caine Russell and Kathryn Caine Wanlass. The facility features a 421-seat hall, a stage for up to 22 performers, and a lobby with glass windows overlooking a plaza. The hall's intimate scale is ideal for small acoustical performances, including chamber music, vocal and instrumental concerts, recitals, readings and lectures. An additional gift from George Caine provided state-of-the-art recording equipment, allowing the Russell/Wanlass Performance Hall the flexibility to be used as an exceptional recording studio.
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Phone: (435) 797-8022
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About the Russell/Wanless Performance Hall
The Manon Caine Russell and Kathryn Caine Wanlass Performance Hall, formerly known as the Caine Performance Hall, opened in January 2006. Designed by Sasaki Associates of Boston, with acoustics overseen by Artec Consultants, it is a 20,000-square-foot building created specifically for chamber music. The hall was a gift from sisters Manon Caine Russell and Kathryn Caine Wanlass, funded by the Marie Eccles Caine Charitable Foundation.
The facility features a 421-seat hall, a stage that accommodates up to 22 performers, and a lobby with glass windows overlooking a plaza. The building is a play of geometries with both acoustical and contextual significance. An orthogonal shell with 18-inch-thick concrete walls is augmented by multiple layers of drywall and finished with a warm-colored beech wood veneer that wraps the interior space. All mechanical systems are suspended on pads or springs to eliminate vibration and extraneous sound.
An additional gift from George Caine provided state-of-the-art recording equipment, allowing the Russell/Wanlass Performance Hall to function as an exceptional recording studio.
The hall's intimate scale is ideal for small acoustical performances, including chamber music, vocal and instrumental concerts, recitals, readings, and lectures.
Inspired by the hall itself, Ann Preston sculpted the lobby’s interior wall using the same materials found in the building’s construction. Slate- and cloud-colored concrete and stainless steel geometric forms engage in an intentional dialogue between the analytic and the perfect. No two patterns repeat, yet together they form a coherent whole—comparable to the glory of music.
Ann crafted the sculpture to invoke “passacaglia,” a musical composition consisting of successive variations over a steady base. Similar but independent. Different but melodious. Passacaglia is a large sculpture of repeating gray and silver tetrahedral shapes adorning the lobby of the performance hall. Ann said, “Music is a series of mathematical resonances, and I wanted to reflect that with a mathematical work.”