The arts resources of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology now include the school’s first building designed for the study and performance of music.
The Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building, behind the Kresge Auditorium and MIT Chapel, opens to the public Saturday with a celebratory concert called “Sonic Jubilance” – the start of a monthslong festival of 80 events across the campus, free and open to the public.
Called Artfinity – a nod to the Infinite Corridor, the east-west walkway through MIT’s interconnected buildings along Memorial Drive – the festival includes concerts and visual arts programming such as outdoor projections, films, installations and exhibitions, as well as lectures and participatory workshops. Organized by the office of the arts at MIT with faculty co-leaders Marcus Thompson and professor of art, culture and technology Azra Akšamija, the celebration runs through May 2.
“The extent of art-making on the MIT campus is equal to that of a major city,” Thompson said. “It’s a miracle that it’s all right here, by people in science and technology who are absorbed in creating a new world and who also value the past, present and future of music and the arts.”
More than 1,500 students enroll in MIT music classes each academic year, and more than 500 student musicians participate in one of 30 on-campus ensembles. MIT has also had its own symphony orchestra since 1884.
Arts patron Joyce Linde gifted the institute crucial funds for the music building in 2018. Linde, who died in March, was a longtime MIT supporter with her late husband and former MIT Corp. member Edward H. Linde ’62.
Designed by Tokyo architectural firm Sanaa with Nagata Acoustics International, the three-volume red brick structure encompasses the Thomas Tull Concert Hall; the Beatrice and Stephen Erdely Music and Culture Space, with robust acoustic insulation and wood floors ideal for rehearsing high-volume ensembles; and the classrooms and studios of the Jae S. and Kyuho Lim Music Maker Pavilion, home to MIT’s new graduate program in music technology and computation. Sanaa’s co-founders were the recipients of the 2010 Pritzker Architecture Prize, often referred to as “architecture’s Nobel.”
The building’s glass-walled lobby, where its three cubic structures converge, lets in ample natural light and views of the surrounding campus. The entrance’s overhead arch echoes the curves of the nearby auditorium and chapel designed by Eero Saarinen.
Outside the entrance stands Madrigal (2024), a site-specific sculpture by Sanford Biggers commissioned by MIT. The kaleidoscopic patterns of the 18-foot mixed-media piece evoke the future and past, including the African American quilting tradition, and allude to the interweaving of diverse musical lines. The school’s Percent-for-Art program chose the sculpture, administered by MIT’s List Visual Arts Center, which selects a new sculpture for every new building on the campus. “Madrigal stands as a vibrant testament to the power of music, tradition and the enduring spirit of collaboration across time,” said List director Paul Ha, calling Madrigal the latest of more than 60 works that make the campus “a giant art museum.”
“Madrigal is a beacon that leads you into the building,” said Keeril Makan, music composition professor and associate dean for strategic initiatives for the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. “Multifaceted in form and also in its surface patterns, it’s about not any one point of view being privileged. Your experience matters. The sculpture mirrors the intent of the Linde Music Building.”
In the Linde Music Building, performers and audience members can enjoy conservatory-level acoustics. The school achieved something tech philanthropist Glenn KnicKrehm had been promising since the 1990s for Kendall Square – to build a grand concert hall called the Constellation Center. Ultimately he sold the fenced-off gravel pit in 2018 for $50.5 million after construction estimates soared out of reach to $300 million or higher during decades of research into the perfect acoustics. MIT isn’t saying how much the Linde cost.
Members of the MIT community are already enjoying the building. “The ensemble rehearsal space is fantastic, with beautiful natural light,” said graduate student Sabrina Drammis, co-founder of tap-dance company Pistachio Groove, “and we love performing in the round in the concert hall, with its intimate stage and amazing sound.”
Versatility was key to those who envisioned the Linde, including Makan. “In this building, we wanted all forms of music to coexist, whether jazz, classical or music from around the world,” Makan said. “This was not easy; different types of music require different conditions. But we took the time and invested in making spaces that would support all musical genres.”
Concerts in the round
The Thomas Tull Concert Hall can be configured for almost any style and size of performance, from a soloist to a tap dance troupe to a full jazz ensemble. There is seating for up to 390 audience members in gently rising rows encircling a central performance area.
“The concert hall is only the second in the world – the first is in Berlin, the Boulez Saal – which combines seating in the round, flexible audience configurations and flexible acoustics,” Makan said. “You are never further than five rows from the musicians. You hear what the musicians hear – it’s a remarkable, visceral experience, leveling the relationship between performer and audience member.”
The design can also transform the experience of performers, as “musicians can align their playing with a soloist in different ways. It’s a liberating experience,” Makan said.
The Linde can be a catalyst for innovation in performances and a way for the program to partner with local institutions such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Makan said.
“Sonic Jubilance” concert
The Saturday concert, “Sonic Jubilance,” features four world premieres of pieces composed by MIT music faculty for this event: Makan’s “Madrigal” (named after the statue), John Harbison’s “Two Noble Kinsmen,” Charles Shadle’s “Grace” and Miguel Zenón’s “Summit.”
“‘Madrigal’ is a tribute to Joyce Linde, who passed away before the opening of the building,” Makan said. “She also loved the visual arts and took part in choosing the Sanford Biggers sculpture.”
The program also presents works by Copland, Ravel, Gonzaga, Bud Powell and Benny Golson.
Performers include the MIT Concert Choir and Chamber Chorus, vocal and instrumental jazz ensembles, the Chamber Music Society, Wind Ensemble, Gamelan Galak Tika and Rambax, an ensemble employing a drum and dance tradition from Senegal. An open house from 1 to 3:30 p.m. Saturday offers Balinese gamelan and Senegalese drum workshops as well as performances by MIT chamber music and jazz ensembles.
Events into May
Artfinity’s 25 concerts will present jazz, classical and rap artists, including Grammy-winning saxophonist and MIT professor Miguel Zenón; the Boston Symphony Chamber Players; Houston-based Kinetic, a conductorless chamber and orchestral ensemble founded by Natalie Lin Douglas, an MIT assistant professor of chamber music and advanced music performance; and poet and rapper BIC (Roosevelt Saillant), who will perform in Kreyòl (Haitian Creole) with singer Sherlee Skai and Cambridge-based Haitian folkloric dance group Jean Appolon Expressions. Biggers, a musician as well as a sculptor, will stage a concert with his concept band Moonmedicin.
Artfinity concludes with a public lecture May 1 by artist and designer Es Devlin, the 2025 recipient of MIT’s Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts; and a May 2 concert by Grammy-winning rapper and MIT visiting scholar Lupe Fiasco with the MIT Jazz Ensemble.
Visitors can register for concerts and view more than 60 artworks on the MIT campus, guided by tour introduced by Leonard Nimoy or by a map for mobile devices.
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