Timashev Family Music Building is now open for classes. Credit: Katie Good | Asst. Photo Editor

After over two years of construction and more than a decade of planning, Ohio State’s Timashev Family Music Building is now home to the School of Music, formerly located in Hughes Hall. 

Located at 1900 College Road N., the 96,000 square-foot Timashev Family Music Building was completed in April and opened for classes for the fall 2022 semester. As part of the $165.3 million Arts District project, renovations were also made to the School of Music’s Weigel Hall, university spokesperson Dan Hedman said in an email. 

Micahel Ibrahim, director of the School of Music, said the construction provides new spaces for students to produce music.

“We do a lot in music school,” Ibrahim said. “We perform, we rehearse, we record, we study, we teach lectures and we now have spaces that are truly state of the art to accompany all those various different activities.” 

Ibrahim, who’s a saxophonist and former West Virginia School of Music director, started his position on July 1, just after the Timashev Family Music Building’s construction was completed, he said. 

“Over the course of these 10 years, funds and community support have developed, and just over the past couple of years, it really took off in terms of the building, the creation of it and the project. I couldn’t be more thrilled and humbled to be here at the tail end of it,” Ibrahim said. 

Ratmir Timashev, a 1996 Ohio State alumnus and former CEO of Veeam Software, provided $17 million to the College of Arts and Sciences’ construction project, according to Ohio State News.

Laura Portune, graduate and assistant professor of practice in voice for the School of Music, said the new space is more accommodating than Hughes Hall because of its community-oriented design and variety of practice and performance spaces. 

“We have really large ensemble rooms that are made for opera scenes or for opera rehearsals,” Portune said. “We have rooms built for the orchestra, we have jazz rooms, we have multimedia rooms and I believe about 88 individual practice rooms, each one with a piano and opportunities for a variety of instruments to meet together and practice.”

In addition, the five-floor Timashev Family Music Building houses a 195-seat recital hall, accompanying the School of Music’s existing 720-seat Weigel Auditorium, according to the College of Arts and Sciences’ Arts District page. 

Jonathan Mitchell, a third-year in music education, said he feels a different energy this year in the new building compared to his time spent in Hughes Hall. 

“Hughes was one of those buildings that, it was kind of difficult to collaborate, simply because of the limited space, and it always seemed like you were fighting for a room,” Mitchell said. “With the new building being so massive, there are plenty of spaces for collaboration, plenty of spaces for you to do individual practice and more opportunities.”

The Department of Theatre, Film and Media Arts building, also part of the Arts District project, will replace the Drake Performance and Event Center and will open in fall 2023. The School of Music will work to collaborate with its soon-to-be neighbors, Portune said. 

“I think that theater and music have so much to offer each other and to aid each other,” Portune said. “Having theater right next door, I’m really hoping that we will be able to take advantage of these great collaborations that have kind of been talked about, but were difficult to pull off because we were so far away from each other.”

Ibrahim said collaboration is encouraged between music and non-music majors, and the School of Music has plans to make double-majoring with a music major an easier process. 

With the Arts District having a large presence on central campus, Ibrahim said the School of Music can differentiate itself from other music schools. Mitchell said the building will also help spark connections among peers through music. 

“Community, to me, represents a group of people coming together as a collective whole, working for the greater good. That’s very apparent now that we are all in this space,” Mitchell said. “You have a better opportunity to not only celebrate each distinctive individual, but also you can see how we work together, and it’s much more apparent that we are one people that are here because we love music.”

The School of Music will host the Timashev Family Music Building Dedication and Celebration on Oct. 23 from 1-4:30 p.m. — including an open house and concert by students, according to the School of Music.