Completion of concert hall at Idaho State to be delayed

POCATELLO, Idaho – The completion of a $35 million dollar performing arts center at Idaho State University has been delayed by four months.

The L.E. and Thelma E. Stephens Performing Arts Center had been expected to be finished in December. That was pushed back to January, but now those overseeing construction say it will take until April 1 before the 1,200-seat Jensen Grand Concert Hall hosts its opening event.

As a result, interested users such as the Utah Opera Festival, an international dance group and several others will have to wait a little longer before the building’s centerpiece concert hall is ready to accommodate performers and paying guests.

“We were supposed to have construction completed by Jan. 21, but that doesn’t look likely to me,” said John Kijinski, interim dean of ISU’s College of Arts and Sciences and chair of the planning committee in charge of the center’s opening.

Theater Department faculty offices were ready last summer and some other portions have been finished, but the concert hall itself is full of scaffolding as workers paint acoustic panels made of gypsum. At the end of this month, work will start on the seats, carpets and stage floor.

Construction on the facility, which overlooks the main campus, began on Oct. 20, 2000. In four years, the center has taken shape and has already hosted multiple sold-out productions.

The Jensen Grand Concert Hall is the largest of three performance venues. Kijinski said the venue is well suited for classical, jazz, pop, dance, theater and maybe folk.

“It’s acoustically very sophisticated and it seems like a venue that plays acoustic music best,” he said, adding that while contemporary acts such as rock or hip-hop groups haven’t been barred from performing at future shows, it will be up to new ISU Events Director George Casper to set many of the policies, fee rates and scheduling issues for the concert hall.