Monday, May 1, 2017, 11:30 AM – 1 PM EDT

“The Courage to Think Small: Emilie Spivey’s Creation of Spivey Hall”

In the words of the legendary conductor Robert Shaw, “Spivey Hall is to music what light is to painting.” The dream of organist, entrepreneur, civic leader and philanthropist Emilie Parmalee Spivey, Spivey Hall opened in 1991, built with private funds totaling $4.5 million. Intimate in size (392 seats), the elegant recital hall has superb acoustics that enable artists and audiences to feel a strong and deeply satisfying connection through the performance of fine music. Now in its 26th season, presenting concert and educational programming that serves patrons ages 3 to 95 hailing from more than 50 Georgia counties and seven states, Spivey Hall enjoys an international reputation for artistic excellence, and is both a living legacy and direct expression of Mrs. Spivey’s values, tastes and personality. 

How this gem of a recital hall came to be situated at Clayton State University, how its programming enriches lives in far-reaching ways (perhaps surprising for its modest size), and how the beautiful “body” of Spivey Hall has also come to possess a beautiful “soul,” are among the topics to be explored in this talk by Spivey Hall’s executive and artistic director, Sam Dixon, who will also share the fascinating story of his own experience “working at the juncture where the art and business of music meet.”