Wharton Center celebrates 25 years of entertaining

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The Wharton Center is getting ready to blow out 25 birthday candles this week.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra will perform at 3 p.m. Sunday in Cobb Great Hall at Wharton Center, honoring the building’s 25th anniversary. The orchestra was Wharton Center’s first show ever in 1982.

“I haven’t been back to MSU in decades,” said Loren Brown, Chicago Symphony Orchestra cello player and 1968 MSU alumnus. “This is really exciting. We just got back from a European tour, but we are ready for Sunday.”

The 108-person orchestra is making its second appearance at MSU since Wharton Center’s opening. David Robertson, director of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, will conduct the group.

“First of all, having alumni members in a world-renowned orchestra says a lot about our university,” said Bob Hoffman, public relations manager for the Center. “Secondly, this event is so appropriate. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra was the inaugural show, and now they are coming back.”

After Sunday’s performance, a formal dinner will be held at the Kellogg Center for about 500 of the highest-level donors of the Wharton Center, executive assistant Bryan Jao said.

MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said the Wharton Center is a treasure for the campus as well as the state of Michigan. She said she will make an important announcement at the dinner regarding the future of the Wharton Center.

“We are always working to improve the Wharton Center, a world-class facility,” she said.

Clifton Wharton, MSU’s 14th president, and his wife Dolores Wharton helped set up the first private fundraising drive in 1971 to establish a fine arts building. The couple plans to attend the anniversary event.

“I believed a university of MSU’s caliber needed to have a first-class facility for the arts,” Wharton said. “We were behind the times. A special committee visited 13 to 14 different facilities around the country, finding out what was good and bad about each one and what would be good for MSU.”

In 1982, the building was constructed on Bogue Street between Shaw Lane and Wilson Road.

Mike Brand, Wharton Center’s executive director, said MSU has a unique situation with a major performing arts center in the middle of campus.

“We are trying to make as much use of it as we can, for students and faculty,” Brand said.

The Wharton Center is expanding every year, trying to give colleges on campus more of an opportunity to interact with guests in the fine arts, Brand said.

The interactive performances include the Stratford Festival of Canada, which is coming to MSU at the end of October. Nine different colleges on campus are scheduled to have classes that interact with the visitors of the Shakespearian festival.

“We are creating more integration between the Wharton Center and the different colleges at MSU,” Brand said. “I’ve watched students learn how to do fight scenes on stage. It’s exciting to watch them learn how to take a fall.”

Sean Ely can be reached at elysean@msu.edu.

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