The UNT College of Music's six-building complex, located in the heart of UNT's campus on Avenue C, is home to one of the nation’s largest music schools. The current Music Building was built originally as a two-story classroom and office structure in 1960. In the early 1970s, a concert hall and rehearsal hall were added. A major renovation completed in 1979 added recital halls, rehearsal halls, dozens of office, classroom, computer and rehearsal spaces in addition to an intermedia theater. In 1999, the Murchison Performing Arts Center, located on the west end of UNT's campus on North Texas Blvd., added the Winspear Performance Hall and the Lyric Theater.

Murchison Performing Arts Center

Rising from the west end of campus and visible from Interstate 35, the Murchison Performing Arts Center houses two world-class performance venues: the Margot and Bill Winspear Performance Hall and the Lyric Theater. The showplace is also home to a large instrumental rehearsal hall, a box office, offices and support spaces. Opened in February 1999 and designed by Malcolm Holzman-of the award-winning firm Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates-the Murchison Performing Arts Center earned immediate critical and public acclaim, joining the ranks of the finest performing arts complexes in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. The Murchison is accessible to patrons with mobility impairments. Hearing assist devices and other accommodations also are available to patrons by advance request.

Winspear Performance Hall
The 19,200-square-foot Winspear Performance Hall is home to UNT College of Music's foremost ensembles, including the One O'Clock Lab Band, the Wind Symphony, Jazz Singers and Symphony Orchestra, among others. The hall accommodates a maximum of 1,108 patrons. The seating includes fixed seats on the orchestra floor and the center section of the balcony. Two sets of boxes on the east and west sides of the hall and the choral terrace contain movable seating.

With its intimate size, Winspear Hall has exception acoustics. Designed by Christopher Jaffe of the internationally-known Jaffe Holden Scarbrough Acoustics, Inc., the acoustics are controlled by visually striking pentagonal clouds and adjustable curtains.

The planned Fisk pipe organ is destined to be the focal point of the hall, rising in front of the stunning pentagonal glass block wall that extends from the orchestra level to the roof line.

Lyric Theater
The flexible design of the 6,300-square-foot, 400-seat Lyric Theater allows for both traditional and creative configurations for opera and drama performances. The theater is home to UNT's Opera Theatre program as well as the site for many Department of Dance and Theatre Arts productions.

Among the venue's main features are:

• flexible seating and stage configurations that allow for traditional proscenium seating, as well as thrust and in-the-round arrangements
• a variety of entrance locations, including corridors and doors on the north and south walls, balconies on the 10- and 20-foot levels, trap doors and catwalks
• an orchestra pit that accommodates a 60-piece ensemble.

College of Music Building

Recital Hall
The Recital Hall is a 200 seat performance space that was designed and created as a part of the 1979 renovation of the Main Music Building. The hall also serves as a large-lecture classroom during the daytime hours. The hall, affectionately known as "the purple room" is ideal for small ensemble performance and has a CD/cassette/phonograph sound system that is ideal for lecture recitals and small ensemble performance.

Concert Hall
Our large Concert Hall seats 635 persons and is wheelchair accessible. Over 30 years of band, orchestra and opera performances have been held in the Concert Hall, and it is the preferred recital space for vocalists. The Concert Hall is also the home of one of the College performance organs.

Kenton Hall
Kenton Hall is a combination rehearsal and recital hall with terraced seating for 115 people. This room is used for classes and rehearsals and is the venue for all undergraduate and graduate jazz recitals. Directly adjacent to the hall is a loading ramp to facilitate bringing in equipment for classes and rehearsals. The hall is equipped with risers, drums, guitar and bass amps, sound equipment for classes, special lighting for performances and a nine foot Steinway concert grand.