Creating a new performing arts center that gives the Symphony and St.

Ambrose University a new musical home in The Cities.

[lively music] [music ends] It's being called Building Harmony.

St.

Ambrose University is partnering with the Quad Cities Symphony Orchestra to create a new $2 million performing arts center near the foot of the Centennial Bridge, where the old Davenport YMCA once stood.

It gives the symphony a place of its own to perform and practice.

It gives St.

Ambrose University's music program a place to grow.

We talked with Symphony Orchestra executive director Brian Baxter and St.

Ambrose University president Doctor Amy Nova about the plans for the future.

This is exciting to talk about a new performing arts center, a $24 million investment.

Brian, let's start with you.

I mean, Quad City Symphony Orchestra has always been cramped for space.

You're kind of journeyma that travel all over the place.

You would have a home and you would have a really good concert venue.

Yeah.

This is a really wonderful partnership with St.

Ambrose University.

We're able to have a space that's going to be fully utilized, like all the time.

Our, our needs sort of interlock, like a puzzle.

For us, it's very much driven by our education programs, which again, is another perfect fit with the university.

They're nomads, like you said.

They're in different spaces for rehearsals every week.

Our offices, which are really just built for administrative work, turn into lessons studios.

It becomes hard to have a phone call when there's a new oboe studen learning oboe next door to me.

So it's not, you know, the space is not built for music.

So this is going to be a purpose built space for music.

And it's really going to, I mean, it literally puts our programs on a map, right?

I was going to say it elevates it to an area that you would think a symphony orchestra should have.

Absolutely.

And I think people in the community don't necessarily realize the quality of our educational programing at the Quad City Symphony is on the same level as places much larger than here you know, Twin Cities, Chicago, you know, all these big metropolitan areas that have robust youth orchestra programs.

Lesson programs.

Ours are just as good here.

Well, it's not just you saying that because you have experience in Chicago.

I mean, you've worked with the Youth Symphony, so you do know the capacity and the potential.

Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

So we have that here, and our orchestra, our professional orchestra, you know I think it's the best orchestra in both of our states here in the Quad Cities.

Now, of course, I'm biased a little bit, but.

You know, we have really high caliber performance programs, education programs.

Everything we do is really top notch.

So this facility will level up where we do that wor so that it matches the quality of our programing.

Why is this something that St.

Ambrose was interested in pursuing a performing arts center when you already have, you know, Galvin Fine Arts why would you need more space?

Yeah, well Galvi Fine Arts is about 60 years old, and it certainly wasn't designed for the type of music that's happening today, or the number of students that we currently have in co-curricular music programs, across our campus.

And so it was on our strategic plan as a space that either needed renovation or a new facility.

And as you know, the state of higher education continues to change.

And we want to think creatively abou how do we better use our space.

We're also a Catholic and diocesan institution.

And with that comes a mission to be in and of and for our community.

So as the symphon started talking about this space and I began thinking about when they use it and when we use it, we began to say, could there be synergy if the two of our entities came together?

And it's really been exciting to see how complementary our work is, and the usage of the symphony and the times they use it, does not tend to be the times that the college in the university environment uses it.

But we can also leverage each other's strengths.

You know, there's an opportunity now for our students to have much more direct access to really amazing performers.

And similarly for students in the community to see St.

Ambrose as an option for their college education when they reach that age.

Well and it's fortuitous, of course, because, because you wonde who was knocking on whose door where the genesis of this idea came from.

You're on the symphony board.

So, I mean, was it were you on the board for this reason in a way, where you were you know, I could leverage this.

Well, I love music, right?

And I see a great deal of joy in music.

And I was a symphony subscriber.

And so my husband and I met in a choir.

There's a long history of music in my family and for me personally.

So I was on that because I cared deeply about culture and music in the Quad Cities.

When this conversation came up, I began thinking about, obviously, also the efforts we were engaging in at St.

Ambrose to really vet the viability o a new structure on our campus.

And it just sort of occurred to me.

And I went to Brian and we began a series of conversations about, would it be possible if the two of us came together and what could that ultimately look like?

And so there's a great deal of due diligence by the board of the symphony, by the St.

Ambrose University Board.

I, I have removed myself from the symphony board just t avoid any conflict of interest.

But as we did the work and we engaged their stakeholders, our faculty members, I mean, it was a robust process of really discerning could this work?

And ultimately, the facility is a little different than I think the symphony would have envisioned for themselves initially, or that St.

Ambrose would have envisioned.

But we have this amazing performance space there, new space for expande use of our faculty and students who are in those programs and classroom space.

That is much more state of the art for the kinds of, performances and for the kinds of music education that's really transpiring in our environment today.

And it also allows what's already in Galvin to perhaps a little more breathing space.

It gives them some breathing space, exactly.

I mean, at one point when Galvin was built, St.

Ambrose was a college of about 800 to 900 students.

Today we're at 2,500.

It's a very different campus than it was 60 years ago.

And we want the arts to continue to flourish.

So we really needed space to make that possible.

This performing arts center.

I love the location.

First off, I mean... It's a great location.

...it would be at the foot of the Centennial Bridge.

For those who don't know, it's where the old YMCA was.

Um, do you picture this as really kind of a cultural jewel for the Quad Cities?

Oh, absolutely.

I mean, there's not another space like this that's going to be acoustically excellent like this anywhere else in the Quad Cities.

So, it will be unique.

It's this incredible convertible space where it can be two orchestra sized rehearsal rooms and then combined into this 500 seat auditorium.

It's going to be really special, and it's going to do a lot for downtown.

You know, where the quantity symphon we've been in downtown forever.

St.

Ambrose University, been in Davenport forever.

I mean, that's a loose term, of course, but we are two institutions, though we're very different, we're fully anchored in the community, so we're not leaving.

Right?

We are here to stay.

And so what this is going to do development wise as development kind of pushes west in downtown Davenport.

It's going to be a really big deal.

So we see it as a really important cultural piece downtown where we have these wonderful the Figge Art Museum, the German-American Heritage Center, the Adler Theater, all of these, pieces.

And I, I'm missing some Common Chord.

Others, so it'll be a really key part of tha for not just downtown Davenport, but really the community as a whole.

When I didn't even think of that, with the with the loss of the Kraft Heinz building and that whole area, on the west side, and the west side doesn't get that much attention, that this is kind of a progression... It pushes that way.

...for the downtown area.

I suspect it will lead t some nice economic development.

Right?

And that's certainly a goa of the city and of the chamber.

And as you think about how do we begin to sort of expand the footprint of that west side of Davenpor and strengthen that community?

I think this is a really nice anchor piece to that.

The symphony orchestra, I hate to call you journeyman, but you do.

You're at Centennial Hall at Augustana, you're at the Adler you play at different locations.

How does that impact some of the programs that you have had, and that, that we're spread throughout the community?

Yeah.

And so this this won't change our performances at, for example, the Adler Theater, you know, we've been there sinc it was revisioned in the 1980s.

And we'll continue to be there because this facility won't host the supe big orchestra stuff that we do.

So we'll still be there, but a full third of our programing doesn't happen at the Adler.

It doesn't happen at Centennial.

And for those where like in various spaces, there's you have to make a lot of different artistic acoustical compromises to make it work.

Everything that will, that, everything we do that's not at the Adler and not at Centennial will be there now.

It's a way of expanding then?

Correct.

Not replacing?

Correct.

Let's tal about the exciting year to come.

Because we have got, the master work session starting October 3rd.

You kick it with an Uncor the Season at the Last Picture Show.

You've done that in the, this may be a new location, but you've done that in the past.

But you're starting with, I'm going to try to get it right, Symphonie Fantastique.

Yes.

Was I close?

Perfect.

Ha, look at me.

Tell me about how this season kicks off and why you picked, what we're going to see this season.

Sure.

So our season opener, October 3rd, there's kind of two big pieces to that, Berlioz and Symphonie Fantastique, and then, Beethoven's fourth Piano Concerto.

And that will feature Davenport native, Thomas Sauer.

He grew up here.

He's now in New York City.

He's, he's had a whole career in music.

And that's a really special piece of music.

It's one of Beethoven's, you know, most beloved piano concertos.

Beethove is a favorite of our community.

When we put Beethoven on the stage, you know people want to come out for it.

So we're excited to have that, A Davenport native who has, has an international career combined with Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique which is like an amazing piece.

It's great that we're doing it in October because there's some Halloween vibes to it.

You know there's a march to the scaffold.

There's, you know, it's he's like, it' a very it's an artist's journey.

We'll put it at that, but it's a, it's one of those, pieces that people want to see.

And it's, you know, it's five movements it's big, it's epic, it's loud.

So it'll be a really fun opener.

And then we have our party beforehand at the Last Picture House...

[?]

...so that'll be really fun.

For those who are looking for more commercial appeal, perhaps to the city, I noticed that you have The Lion King.

You have Elf in Concert.

So the Lion King Concerts October 24th at the Adler.

Elf in Concert is November 21st at the Adler.

I like the smile on your face because I know a lot of it's not necessarily traditional symphony orchestra music, but it's another way to reach the audience.

But it is in fact.

Please tell me.

Think about your favorite movie and think about it without the music.

Like, it's terrible.

You're right.

Like the music is as important as who is cast in the leading role.

It's as important as the script, the visuals, if it's if it's an animated film.

You know, it's so critical.

And so we love bringing these QCSO at the movies programs to the community because you get to see the orchestra and hear the orchestra perform the score live to the film on the big screen in the Adler Theater.

And it's a totally unique kind of experience.

It would be.

It's almost a throwback to like back in the day, you know, you had the organist or whatever do it to the silent film, but now we're like, bringing it back.

Like, this is the orchestra.

This is what was put together to to bring this, incredible movie to life.

And, you know, the Disney flicks, we've done several of them, and we always get a huge response.

Like Lion King came out, what was it, ‘92, 94, maybe.

And so, all of these, especially folks who grew up with it, they now they want to bring their own kids now.

And so it's a really fun, kind of very family friendly experience.

And then and then Elf is a similar thing.

We'll be kicking off, the holiday a little early, right before Thanksgiving.

And, we're we're thrilled with that, too.

You bring up that that, of course, it's an audience favorite, and it really hits a lot of people in their families.

What about the musicians themselves?

Sure.

Is this, is this something that they really enjoy, or do they want to be part of more of the classics, like you said?

Beethoven.

Bach.

[ha, ha, ha] Well, I would say the musicians are not a monolith.

They all have their preferences and things they enjoy, thing they maybe don't enjoy as much.

But in my conversations, they're showing up to a gig, and they put their whole heart into whatever the music is on the stand.

So we actually get a lot of feedback from our musicians that they really enjoy the, you know, The Lion King or like in the past, we've done Harry Potte or Nightmare Before Christmas.

All these different ones.

And one of the things they love about it is even though our Saturday night masterworks crowd can get a little bit rowdy I mean, orchestra rowdy, when they're at the.

That's got to be a new term for a rowdy.

When you're at the when you're at the movie concert, like there is like loud like rock concert level applause.

And they get that, they give the applause to the orchestra when it's intermission, when it's the end.

Yeah.

One thing people forget about when you're a performer is that you feed off the energy in, in the house and you feed off the energy of the audience.

And so when you really hear that, they love that and they, you know, it helps them to perform.

It says what you love about performances in the Quad Cities, th the vibrancy that still exists with the symphony orchestra and without organizations such as this, this is a much lesser community?

Look, we're in really interesting time, right?

And so much of our world consumes media via, vehicle.

Right?

Whether it's your phone, your television, whatever that might be.

What's terrific about being at Symphony is this is live music, right?

And there's just an intimacy in that live production that I think brings people's emotion and energy to a different level.

It's an experience that really can't be duplicated by your phone or by another channel.

So, I think it's exciting to see this kind of partnership.

It's what draws me to it.

I was, I played myself at one point you know, and so that you feel that energy of the musician when they're performing, and it's a jo to be part of that experience.

We were talking about the synergy and the collaboration with the symphony orchestra and with, St.

Ambrose and St.

Ambrose is really findin different ways of partnership.

And I want to talk about, the Mount Mercy, partnershi that you have with the college in Cedar Rapids.

It is still under development.

You're still waiting for, federal approval with the Department of Education.

We've made it through.

I'm going to say 90% of the process with the Department of Education.

We're waiting for the final approval from them.

Which we anticipate sometime this fall.

But there's been no red flags at all.

It's just a matter of the fact that the Department of Education has fewer staff, because of all the changes that have happened there.

So we have fewer staff, bu the regulations are still there.

So we just have to go through the process.

And, but we've had nothing but, affirmatio both by our accrediting bodies, and by the previous steps that the department approved.

So how do you see this as beneficial for the St.

Ambrose?

I mean, because when we were talking earlier, before the camera started rolling, is that you see this really as a win, win.

It's not really I don't kno if you want to call it a merger.

It's not a takeover.

In some ways, it' it's really a true partnership between two successful, Catholic institutions.

Yeah.

When I think we look at the map of Iowa, right, we can say, Cedar Rapids occupies one of the largest growth markets in Iowa today, and Davenport is right behind them in terms of just having, populatio and continued economic growth.

We want to be labor force partners to both communities.

We think about the future of how does small, private higher education thrive, and not just survive, because many of our institutions are sort of struggling right now like type and size institutions.

We wanted to be proactive and say, is there a way to think differentl about how we organize ourselves so that we can really strengthen the student experience and be a better partner to our communities?

And so for us that meant recognizing we had complementary in our, complementarity in our graduate program.

So there were offerings at Mount Mercy that didn't exist at St.

Ambrose.

So they were offerings at St.

Ambrose that didn't exist at Mount Mercy.

Now we have a capacity, once this merger is complete, to really begin expandin those offerings on both sites, and opening up pathways to our students so that much more quickly they're able, even after year three, in some cases, to get into those graduate programs.

We also consolidated back offic operations, which has resulted in significant cost savings, allows us to simply, run our organization more sustainably.

And as we think abou the future, anything we can do to ensure access for student and affordability for students means we have to think about how do we run more fiscall responsible and these kinds of, I think partnerships are going to be key to how we do the best work of our future.

Well we have just limited time left.

One of us, three met with the Pope.

And it's not something that happens all the time because of your significant, leadership in regards to Catholic higher education.

You were able to meet with the Pope, you were able to, talk with, papal officials in regards to the future of education.

And particularly AI, is i something that's being embraced or is it embraced?

But carefully?

Because, you know, of the potential and perhaps, you know, we're unlockin really a future we don't know.

I think there's, there's two things happening that I would just draw your attention to.

The first is in, Pope Leo' writing called New Maps of Hope, he embraces the idea of collaboration, and he says we need to think much more intentionally abou how we collaborate to strengthen Catholic higher education, if you will, but just our Catholic commitments generally.

So within the Catholic context, we have a commitment to human dignity.

We have a commitment to justice in our world.

We have commitments to ensuring we honor people and respect them, you know, in the ways in which we encounter them, among many things, right?

We have a commitment to poverty and to addressing issues that we think strengthen the common good.

Magnificat, Humanitas, which is this fundamental writing around artificial intelligence, really expands that to say it's okay to have technology, technology's not inherently bad, but we want to make sure that when we're using it, it's not demeaning, belittling, or marginalizing communities that in fact, we're using it in a way, in an ethically responsible way.

And we're understanding who's voice might not be part of the large language model that we need to ensure we have listened to or engaged with as we do the work.

So to be a responsible Catholic higher education institution today, we have to have a both/and approach.

We have to embrace the technology, but do so in a manner that is consisten with our intellectual tradition and our Catholic social teaching.

And it also reminds us that we don't do this alone.

So whether it's the symphony and thinking about live music and collaboration or it's Mount Mercy and thinking about how we strengthen Catholic higher education, we are really operatin in a universe of constellations where we can learn from one another, and we shouldn't be confining that to just, you know, the traditional boundaries of a university.

We need to think more broadly about how we do that work.

And that brings us, of course, back to the Performing Arts Center.

Thinking more broadly, what is the timeline then for this building?

It was just announced.

What are you hoping will be, the schedule moving forward?

Sure.

So we are in full fundraising mode.

You know, we're we're in on this 50/50.

So we're each bringing half to the table.

And so we're anticipating probably 18 to 24 months of fundraising to get to the point at which we can then break ground.

So, we believe 2028 is when we can break ground with the understanding that there are milestone we have to hit to get to that.

And then 2029, we can open.

So it's kind of a 3 to 4 year timeline here.

Doable obviously, in your opinion not 100% aggressive?

100% [?].

Yeah, and I'm really pleased by like there's a lot of community support for this project.

It's been exciting to hear people's embrace of this.

Yeah.

Well, we thank both of you for being here.

It was a wide ranging conversation.

We appreciate your time but you're both so interesting.

And I want to make sure that I got into topics other than the Performing Arts Center, which of course is a key to the future.

And as we were saying, it could be a huge economic developer on the West side of downtown.

It will be, it will be.

Absolutely.

It will be We think it'll be a big impact.

Our thanks to Quad City Symphony Orchestra Executive Director Brian Baxter and St.

Ambrose University president Doctor Amy Novak.

The month of August is coming to a close, but there are still some great summertime events to enjoy around the cities.

And here's a couple ideas for you.

Thanks to visit Quad Cities.

[soft music] Check out the things to do this week in the Quad Cities.

Start your week off by watching the classic movie Wizard of Oz come to life on stage.

Then all seniors ages 60 and up will receive free admission to the Figge Art Museum, as well as 10% off in the museum store.

Next, hel restore the historic Jens Jensen landscape with native plants at the Hauberg Estate.

Then explore fields of flowers at Danndee Flowers nestled just outside the charming town of Aledo.

Finally, check out an outdoor celebration of culture, diversity, strong neighborhoods and families at Soul of the City.

For more events like these check out our events calendar at VisitQuadCities.com [music ends] Lojo Russo has a busy schedule of concerts in the coming weeks, including a planned West Coast tour in November.

But this one woman sho will be performing in Illinois and Iowa in the coming weeks as well.

We caught up with her when she played one of her originals at the Black Box Theater in Moline.

That's where she took to the stage to play “The Secret”.

A lot of my songwriting is based on snippets of melod that kind of run in my head or something that I say, and then I realize that's got like a rhythm to it [?]

and I'll kind of play with that rhythm a little bit and see i anything else grows out of it.

More often than not I'm playing around on the guitar [guitar strumming] and just kind of pop in through some different stuff, and this little pattern on the guitar starts up.

petty on the server.

Penny on the sidewalk Pick it up Dollar in my pocket Give it up [guitar strumming] Reaching out to a stranger Lend a hand Lend an ear try to understand, yeah Mmmmm [guitar strumming] I've got a secret Small and shiny like a pearl I've got a secret And it's gonna change the world Change world oh yeah Why can't we be friends?

Why can't we be friends?

[guitar strumming] Change the world All my blessings pack ‘em, let em show All my worries pack ‘em up and let em go Negativitys a waste of time positivity will free your mind.

Ive gotta a secret small and shiny like a pearl I wrote a song based on a book I never read “The Secret”, bu I knew the, the premise of it.

The overarching idea of putting good out in the universe and the universe will bring the good back into your life.

So that's, that's the secret.

Trying to remember that negativity is a waste of time you know, giving up a, you know, finding a penny on the, on the, on the floor and picking it up.

But when you see somebody in need, you give a dollar back.

It's, you know, it's it's no just 1/1 kind of give and take.

It's always trying to just giv and give and give and remember all the good stuff that we are thankful for.

So.

Penny on the sidewalk Pick it up dollar in my pocket Give it up, give it up, give it up.

Give it up!

Lojo Russo and “The Secret”.

performed at the Black Box Theater in downtown Moline.

She has concerts scheduled in Kalona, Iowa, and Galena, Illinois in the coming weeks, and she'll also be at Riverssance in Lindsay Park, coming up in late September.

On the air, on the radio, on the web,on your mobile devic and streaming on your computer, thanks for taking some time to join us as we talk about the issues on The Cities.

[lively music] [music ends]